THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


SOUTHERN  BRANCH, 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA, 

LIBRARY, 

lLOS  ANGELES,  CALIF. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY 
SCHOOL  CURRICULA 


A  Comparative  Study  of  Representative  Cities  of 

the  United  States,  England,  Germany 

and   France 


BY 


BKUCE  RYBURN  PAYNE,  PH.  D. 

4556  3 


SILVER,  BURDETT  AND  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK      BOSTON      CHICAGO 
ATLANTA       DALLAS       SAN  FRANCISCO 


COPYRIGHT,  1905,  BY 
SILVER,  BURDETT  AND  COMPANY. 


tducatio* 
Library 

L  B 


er 

<D 


PREFACE. 

This  study  attempts  to  give  an  exact  description  of  the  sub- 
ject  matter  and  its  arrangement  in  the  curricula  of  public 
elementary  schools  of  certain  representative  cities  in  the 
United  States,  England,  Germany  and  France.  Adherence  to 
this  definite  problem  led  chiefly  to  a  comparative  study  of  the 
actual  and  relative  time  assigned  to  subjects  in  schools  and 
in  grades. 

Hearty  acknowledgment  of  indebtedness  to  the  writings, 
lectures  and  personal  suggestions  of  Dr.  Nicholas  Murray  But- 
ler, Dr.  John  Dewey,  Dr.  Charles  McMurry,  Dr.  E.  T.  Thorn- 
dike,  Dr.  Paul  Monroe,  Dr.  J.  A.  McVannel,  and  Dr.  F.  M. 
McMurry  is  hereby  made.  The  influence  of  the  thought  of 
these  gentlemen  will  be  readily  recognized  in  the  following 
pages.  Especially  serviceable  have  been  the  suggestions  of 
Dr.  Frank  M.  McMurry,  under  whose  kindly  guidance  the 
research  was  pursued  for  two  years.  Without  his  encourage- 
ment it  is  probable  that  the  arduous  task  of  collecting  and 
organizing  the  material  would  have  been  abandoned  before  it 
reached  its  present  form. 

Space  is  not  allowed  for  the  acknowledgment  of  the  kind- 
ness of  many  persons  who  lent  valuable  assistance  in  collect- 
ing  data  for  this  study.  It  would  be  an  act  of  unpardonable 
ingratitude,  however,  not  to  record  the  thanks  due  Miss  Eliza- 
beth Baldwin,  Librarian  of  Teachers  College,  whose  wide 
experience  in  collecting  such  material  made  her  peculiarly 
able  to  give  that  aid  which  she  so  ungrudgingly  rendered 
while  the  source  material  for  this  study  was  being  gathered. 

3 


4  PREFACE. 

The  sources  of  information  in  the  study  of  the  American 
elementary  schools  were  the  printed  syllabi  of  the  Superin- 
tendents of  Schools,  supplemented  and  corrected,  when  the 
case  demanded,  by  the  written  statements  of  the  Superintend- 
ents themselves,  to  many  of  whom  I  am  indebted  for  such 
kindness.  The  Reports  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education 
and  personal  letters  from  him  and  his  staff  were  of  valuable 
service. 

The  study  of  the  curriculum  in  the  schools  of  England  is 
much  more  exhaustive  than  that  of  the  other  countries,  be- 
cause so  little  has  been  printed  on  the  subject  in  America  that 
a  more  extensive  treatment  was  required.  Through  the  kind- 
ness of  Mr.  A.  E.  Twentyman,  Assistant  Director  of  Special 
Inquiries  and  Reports  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  England, 
and  of  Dr.  Thistleton  Mark,  Head  of  the  Department  of 
Education  at  Victoria  University,  Manchester,  there  were 
collected  seventy-eight  syllabi  of  educators  and  Inspectors  of 
the  English  Government.  These  furnished  a  valuable  source 
for  research. 

Among  other  sources  of  information  to  be  mentioned  are : 

(1)  The  National  Union  of  Teachers'  edition  of  the  Code  for  1903, 
London ;  (2)  Statistics  of  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  England  for 
1902-1903,  Eyre  &  Spottswood,  London;  (3)  The  Provisional  Code  of 
Regulations  for  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  and  Training  Colleges, 
Eyre  &  Spottswood ;  (4)  Revised  Instructions  applicable  to  the  Code  of 
1902 ;  (5)  The  Elementary  Education  Acts  for  England  and  Wales  from 
1870-1902,  London,  1903 ;  (6)  Reports  of  the  School  Board  of  London  to 
July,  1904. 

I  am  indebted  to  Gabriel  Compayre,  Rector  of  the  Acad- 
emy of  Lyons,  France,  for  suggestions  and  references,  and  for 
a  copy  of  the  twelfth  edition  of  his  splendid  contribution  upon 
French  Education,  "Organisation  Pedagogique,  et  Legisla- 
tion des  Ecoles  Primaries,"  Paris,  1904,  which  has  furnished 
valuable  help  in  this  work. 

L.  Bedorez,  Director  of  Primary  Instruction  of  the  Depart- 


PREFACE.  5 

ment  of  the  Seine,  likewise,  has  been  ever  courteous,  sending 
reports  of  the  schools  of  his  department.    Among  them  are: 

(1)  Ville  de  Paris, — Les  ficoles  et  les  Oeuvres  Municipales  d'En- 
seignement,  1871-1900 ;  (2)  Reglement  des  ficoles  Maternelles  Publiques 
du  D6partement  de  la  Seine,  Paris,  1896;  (3)  Note  sur  les  fitablisse- 
ments  Publics  d'Enseignement  Primaire  a  Paris,  Dec.,  1903;  (4)  Regle- 
ment  pour  les  ficoles  Publiques,  Paris,  1899;  (5)  Arret6  No.  4362  Conseil 
du  Departement  de  la  Seine,  1898. 

The  laws  which  prescribe  the  course  of  instruction  for  the 
Elementary  Schools  and  Kindergartens  of  France  were  taken 
from: 

Plan  d'fitude  des  ficoles  Primaires  filgmentaires  (Collection  Delalain 
No.  65)  and  from  Plan  d'fitude  des  ficoles  Maternelles  Publiques  (Collec- 
tion Delalain  No.  66) ,  both  by  Delalain  Freres,  Paris,  1904. 

Acknowledgment  is  most  gratefully  made  to  Gymnasialdi- 
rektor  Dr.  Hugo  Lemcke  of  Stettin,  Prussia,  who,  through  his 
experience  as  a  German  school  official,  was  able  to  steer  me 
clear  of  much  research  which  otherwise  would  have  been  nec- 
essary. His  tireless  efforts  in  collecting  and  forwarding  pro- 
grams and  syllabi  made  the  present  study  of  the  curriculum 
of  German  schools  possible. 

Other  sources  are: 

(1)  Das  offentliche  Unterrichtswesen  Deutschlands  in  der  Gegenwart 
von  Dr.  Paul  Stotzner,  Leipsic,  1901;  (2)  Grundlehrplan  der  Berliner 
Gemeindeschule,  Berlin,  1902 ;  (3)  Allgemeine  Bestimmungen  des  Min- 
isters der  geistlischen  Angelegenheiten  vom  15  Oktober,  1872. 

Besides  the  foregoing  primary  sources,  the  following  second- 
ary material  has  been  found  serviceable : 

(1)  Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects,  eleven  volumes,  com- 
piled for  the  Board  of  Education  of  England,  under  the  supervision  of 
Michael  E.  Sadler,  Director  of  Special  Inquiries  and  Reports  for  Great 
Britain  (referred  to  as  E.  R.)  ;  (2)  Reports  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Education  of  the  United  States  (referred  to  as  C.  R.)  ;  (3)  The  Making 
of  Citizens, — a  Study  in  Comparative  Education,  by  R.  E.  Hughes, 
Scribners,  1902.  This  book  deals  minutely  with  the  educational  systems 


6  PREFACE. 

of  America,  England,  Germany  and  France;  (4)  Elementary  Education 
in  France,  by  T.  H.  Teegan,  1891 ;  (5)  French  Schools  through  American 
Eyes,  by  J.  R.  Parsons,  1892 ;  (6)  Prussian  Schools  through  American 
Eyes,  by  J.  R.  Parsons,  (7)  Method  in  the  Schools  of  Germany,  by 
J.  T.  Prince,  1891;  (8)  The  German  School  System,  by  Levi  Seeley, 
1896. 


CONTENTS. 

PAOB 
INTRODUCTION 11 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE  CURRICULUM  OF  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS  IN  CITIES  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES. 

1.  THE  SUBJECTS  OF  INSTRUCTION  BY  GBADES  IN  FIFTY  CITIES 

OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 19 

2.  TIME  ALLOTMENTS  IN  THE  CUBBICULA  OF  TEN  CITIES  OF  THB 

UNITED  STATES       ........      24 

3.  AVEBAGE  TIME  ALLOTMENTS  AND  WHAT  THEY  SHOW     .         .      37 

4.  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  VABIOUS  SUBJECTS  OF  INSTRUCTION  INTO 

TOPICS 42 

5.  THE  HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  COUBSE  OF  STUDY  IN 

FIVE  CITIES,  SHOWING  THE  DIRECTION  OF  GBOWTH  SINCE 
1868 52 

6.  TIME  ALLOTMENT 59 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  CUBBICULUM  OF  PUBLIC  ELEMENTABY  SCHOOLS  IN  CITIES  OF 

ENGLAND. 

1.  ADMINISTRATION  RELATING  TO  THE  ELEMENTABY  CURRICULUM.      63 

2.  THE  ADOPTION  BY  SCHOOLS  OF  THE  CURRICULUM  PRESCRIBED 

BY  STATE       .........      71 

3.  COMPABISON  OF  THE  ENGLISH  STANDARD  AND  THE  AMERI- 

CAN GRADE 76 

4.  GENERAL  TBEATMENT  OF  SUBJECTS  BY  STANDARDS        .         .      78 

5.  TIME  ALLOTMENTS  OF  THE  VARIOUS  SUBJECTS,  WITH  SPECIAL 

ATTENTION  TO  INSTRUCTION  IN  RELIGION,  HANDWORK  AND 

PHYSICAL  CULTURE         .......  82 

6.  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  CONTENT  OF  STUDIES  INTO  TOPICS     .         .  102 

7.  METHOD  OF  RELIEF  FBOM  THE  OVERCROWDED  CURRICULUM      .  106 

8.  CONCLUSIONS                                         .  107 


8  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  CURRICULUM  OF  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS  IN  CITIES  or 

GERMANY. 

PAGE 

1.  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS  OF  GERMANY     .     Ill 

2.  LENGTH  OF  SCHOOL  LIFE  AND  THE  SCHOOL  KNOWLEDGE  OF  THE 

GEBMAN  CHILD       .         ....         .         .         .  114 

3.  OVERCROWDING    .........  118 

4.  UNIFORMITY 123 

5.  WEALTH  AND  POVERTY  OF  THE  GERMAN  CURRICULUM     .         .  132 

6.  CONSERVATISM  AND  CHANGES  IN  FORTY  YEARS     .         .         .  139 

7.  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  ACTUALLY  PROVIDED  FOR     .         .         .  143 

8.  LANGUAGE 144 

9.  RELIGION  .........  146 

10.  ARITHMETIC        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  148 

11.  REALIEN 149 

12.  CORRELATION       .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  150 

13.  FORMAL  vs.  CONTENT  STUDIES 150 

CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  CURRICULUM  OF  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS  OF  FRANCE. 

1.  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS    .         .         .     153 

2.  GENERAL  LAWS  RELATING  TO  THE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS         .     155 

3.  THE  CURRICULUM  AND  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  SUB-PRIMARY 

SCHOOLS  AND  CLASSES   .......     157 

4.  TIME  ALLOTMENTS  AND  SUBJECTS  EMPHASIZED  IN  THE  ELE- 

MENTARY CURRICULUM    .......     166 

5.  THE  STRIKING  QUALITIES  AND  THE  CONTENT  OF  PARTICULAR 

SUBJECTS  OF  INSTRUCTION 169 

6.  ORGANIC  UNITY  IN  THE  COURSE  OF  STUDY     ....     176 

7.  THE  CONTROLLING  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  NEEDS  OF  SOCIETY  AND 

THE  DEMANDS  OF  THE  ENVIRONMENT       ....     178 

8.  CORRELATION 179 

CHAPTER   V. 

CONCLUSION. 

1.  THE  Two  CONTROLLING  STANDARDS  IN  THE  SELECTION  OF  SUB- 

JECT MATTER  IN  THE  ELEMENTARY  CURRICULUM      .         .     181 

2.  CONCLUSIONS  RE-STATED  ....     187 


CONTENTS.  9 

PAGB 

3.  TIME  ALLOTMENTS  IN  THE  CURBICULA  OF  SCHOOLS  OF  THE 

UNITED  STATES,  ENGLAND,  GERMANY  AND  FEANCE,  SUM- 
MAEIZED  INTO  ONE  COMPOSITE  TABLE    ....     193 

4.  A  TABLE  SUMMABIZING  THE  ELEMENTABY  CUBBICULA  OF  NEW 

YOBK,   LONDON,  BEBLIN  AND  PABIS         ....     196 

5.  A  SUGGESTED  CUKBICULUM  FOB  ELEMENTABY  SCHOOLS  .         .     197 


INTRODUCTION. 

During  the  past  twenty-five  years  of  the  progress  of  Amer- 
ican education,  one  of  the  important  problems  of  yearly  re- 
currence has  been  how  to  improve  the  course  of  study  in  the 
elementary  grades.  Such  improvement  could  be  made  both 
by  means  of  changes  in  the  nature  of  the  subject  matter  it- 
self, and  by  the  suitable  arrangement  of  the  subject  matter. 
Consequently,  in  a  comparative  study  of  the  curricula  of 
the  elementary  schools  of  the  four  progressive  nations  of  the 
world,  the  United  States,  England,  Germany  and  France, 
which  are  dealt  with  in  this  work,  some  of  the  questions  of 
fundamental  importance  are:  (1)  What  is  the  nature  of  the 
content  of  the  curriculum?  (2)  What  are  the  grades  in 
which  the  various  subjects  are  taught ?  (3)  How  much  time 
is  allotted  to  each  subject  both  in  the  whole  course  and  in  each 
grade?  (4)  What  is  the  relative  importance  attached  to  the 
various  subjects  of  instruction  by  the  leading  educators  of 
the  four  progressive  school  systems  of  the  world  ? 

Investigation  of  the  four  preceding  questions  ought  to 
afford  suggestions  valuable  in  the  solution  of  those  educa- 
tional problems  which  are  of  such  pressing  importance  in 
America.  Some  of  these  problems  are:  (1)  How  can  a 
closer  relation  in  the  course  of  study  be  secured,  which  shall 
make  of  the  curriculum  a  unity  rather  than  a  mechanism  of 
unrelated  sections?  (2)  What  administrative  measures  may 
be  adopted  in  order  to  secure  a  greater  uniformity  between 
the  curricula  of  different  city  schools,  so  that  a  child  in  pass- 
ing from  one  school  to  the  other  may  not  suffer  the  loss  of 

11 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

time  and  the  difficulty  of  adjusting  himself  to  a  radically  dif- 
ferent course  of  study?  (3)  How  may  the  curriculum  of 
the  sub-primary  school  or  kindergarten  be  adjusted  to  that 
of  the  primary  school?  (4)  Is  the  length  of  the  daily  school 
session  what  it  should  be?  (5)  Can  there  be  suggested  a 
satisfactory  system  of  electives  among  the  studies  of  the  ele- 
mentary school?  (6)  Can  a  plan  be  discovered  by  which 
Bible  instruction  may  be  introduced  into  the  schools  of  Amer- 
ica without  seriously  infringing  the  spirit  of  our  democratic 
institutions?  (7)  How  may  the  health  and  physical  devel- 
opment of  the  child  be  more  adequately  provided  for?  To 
contribute  something  toward  the  answering  of  these  questions, 
the  present  research  was  undertaken.  Various  other  ques- 
tions will  be  discussed  as  they  are  suggested  by  the  data. 
(See  pp.  14  and  36.) 

In  order  to  properly  present  the  vast  amount  of  material 
found  in  the  sources  from  which  this  study  is  drawn,  it  has 
been  found  necessary  to  make  many  brief  summaries  of  the 
most  essential  facts.  To  this  end  sixty-three  tables  have  been 
constructed.  These  supply  to  a  great  extent  the  data,  the 
argument,  and  the  conclusions  of  the  discourse.  Indeed,  many 
of  the  tables  should  be  regarded  as  epitomes  of  facts  which 
are  of  primary  importance  in  studying  the  various  curricula 
prescribed  by  the  best  thinkers  in  the  several  progressive 
educational  systems  of  the  world.  The  tabular  form  is  pur- 
sued because  of  its  convenience,  and  because  in  this  form  the 
facts  may  be  readily  referred  to,  both  for  the  present  discus- 
sion and  for  such  use  as  others  may  make  of  the  data  here- 
with correlated,  much  of  which  will  not  be  found  elsewhere 
in  English. 

One  of  the  purposes  of  this  work  from  its  incipiency  has 
been  to  furnish  in  a  usable  form  such  facts  about  the  public 
elementary  curricula  of  the  advanced  city  and  state  school 
systems  of  the  world  as  would  serve  as  a  basis  of  comparison 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

to  those  persons  who  are  responsible  for  the  construction  of 
curricula  in  cities  and  states  of  our  own  country.  The  facts 
summarized  in  these  tables  will  suggest  numerous  questions 
of  vital  interest  to  students  of  the  elementary  school  course  of 
study.  Such  questions  and  suggestions  as  are  brought  up  by 
study  of  these  data  will  for  the  most  part  merely  be  stated 
here,  and  their  further  development  left  for  the  more  preten- 
tious discussions  of  other  students  of  education. 

The  method  of  treatment  pursued  in  tabulating  the  in- 
formation is  uniform  and  simple  throughout.  Each  subject 
receives  the  same  number  to  the  left  and  occupies  approxi- 
mately the  same  position  in  each  table.  There  are  usually 
two  tables  on  each  page  under  one  Roman  number,  the  first 
table  showing  the  minutes  per  week  devoted  to  each  subject 
in  each  grade,  together  with  the  percentage  of  total  recitation 
time  devoted  to  each  subject,  and  the  table  at  the  bottom  of 
the  page  giving  the  percentage  of  recitation  time  given  to 
each  subject  in  each  grade.  The  purpose  of  this  lower  table 
of  percentages  is  to  afford  the  opportunity  to  translate  the 
same  relative  time  allotments  to  any  other  curriculum,  in  case 
one  should  agree  to  the  relative  time  allotments  but,  for  prac- 
tical reasons,  could  not  consent  to  the  actual  time  allotments. 
The  most  important  item  of  the  upper  table  is  shown  in  the 
last  column  to  the  right  where  the  percentage  of  the  total 
school  time  given  to  any  subject  is  calculated.  After  the  cur- 
ricula of  ten  cities  in  each  country  have  been  subjected  to  the 
foregoing  analysis,  there  are  two  tables  given  which  sum- 
marize the  items  of  the  ten  (see  Tables  XII.,  XIII.,  XXXVI., 
XXXVII.,  etc.).  These  show  the  average  number  of  minutes 
per  week  and  the  average  percentage  of  recitation  time  de- 
voted to  each  subject  in  each  grade,  together  with  the  relative 
percentage  of  total  time  given  to  each  subject  in  the  various 
cities,  and  the  average  relative  percentage  of  total  time.  The 
purpose  of  these  tables  is  to  show  the  actual  content  and  ar- 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

rangement  of  the  curricula,  also  the  relative  importance  at- 
tached to  each  subject  by  the  educators  of  the  United  States, 
England,  Germany  and  France,  as  shown  by  the  actual  prac- 
tice. It  is  believed  that  such  a  display  reveals  a  curriculum 
which  in  many  respects  differs  from  that  ordinarily  pictured 
in  educational  periodicals.  Whether  or  not  we  are  living  up 
to  the  ideals  expressed  in  current  pedagogical  literature  or, 
in  fact,  how  much  the  actual  ideals  of  educators  or  of  society 
as  a  whole  are  expressed  in  such  literature,  is  a  question  upon 
which  these  tables  furnish  primary  evidence. 

Other  tables  follow  which  contain  a  further  analysis  of  the 
content  of  the  representative  subjects  into  topics.  These  were 
tabulated  for  several  purposes:  (1)  To  see  in  what  grades 
various  topics  tend  to  be  taught ;  (2)  To  discover  if  the  much- 
debated  subject  of  correlation  is  really  a  fact  of  school  prac- 
tice; (3)  To  suggest  methods  of  enrichment  of  the  impov- 
erished curriculum  or  of  the  relief  of  the  overcrowded  curric- 
ulum; (4)  To  inquire  if  there  may  not  be  an  improvement  in 
the  arrangement  of  the  topics  within  certain  staple  subjects 
of  elementary  instruction. 

Attention  is  called  to  the  tables  showing  the  historical  de- 
velopment of  the  curricula  of  five  cities  of  the  United  States 
and  of  the  curriculum  of  the  Berlin  schools.  These  tables  were 
correlated  in  order  to  detect  the  tendencies  in  the  course  of 
study.  It  is  worth  while  to  know  if  we  are  in  reality  getting 
away  from  the  formal  and  abstract;  if  we  are  succeeding  in 
incorporating  into  the  curriculum  of  the  people's  school  those 
knowledge  studies  which  may  fit  more  nearly  into  the  needs 
of  society  and  of  child  experience  than  the  abstract  studies. 
This  struggle  between  what  are  popularly  known  as  the  theo- 
retical and  the  practical  studies  is  one  of  the  ever-present 
problems  in  American  education. 

A  distinction  must  be  made  between  the  use  of  the  terms 
"conclusion"  and  "implication"  throughout  this  work. 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

Doubtless  few  absolute  conclusions  would  be  warranted  by  this 
study.  There  are  many  implications,  however,  to  which  are  to 
be  attached  merely  the  significance  of  suggestions.  The  ever- 
changing  condition  of  society  calls  for  a  dynamic  and  vari- 
able curriculum.  So  that  while  valuable  approximations  can 
and  should  be  made,  positive  and  final  conclusions  should  be 
avoided.  Even  if  society  were  static,  and  if  invariability  were 
desirable  in  the  curriculum,  it  would  be  exceedingly  difficult 
to  make  more  than  suggestive  statements  regarding  conclu- 
sions reached  in  a  comparative  study  of  the  elementary  cur- 
ricula of  the  United  States,  England,  Germany  and  France. 
There  are  two  reasons  for  this.  First,  the  task  of  securing  a 
sufficiently  large  number  of  facts  upon  any  one  principle 
would  be  a  work  too  great  for  one  person;  and  second,  the 
elimination  of  so  many  contingencies  would  be  necessary  be- 
fore a  common  denominator  could  be  discovered  which  would 
furnish  a  basis  for  comparisons  such  as  would  warrant  abso- 
lute conclusions.  One  of  these  contingencies  should  be  men- 
tioned at  this  point,  viz.,  the  different  aims  of  education  in  the 
four  countries.  If,  for  instance,  Germany  aims  at  the  indus- 
trial citizen  as  the  product  of  the  Volksschule  and  the  man  of 
culture  as  the  product  of  the  Progymnasium,  it  is  likely  that 
this  aim  will  direct  the  construction  of  a  curriculum  different 
from  that  found  in  the  United  States,  where  we  seek  to  give 
both  training  for  life  and  training  for  college  in  the  same 
elementary  school.  This  and  similar  exceptions  must  have 
their  weight  in  deciding  what  should  be  considered  as  a  final 
conclusion  and  what  as  a  valuable  suggestion. 

Yet,  after  all  is  said,  it  remains  true  that  the  contingencies 
are  secondary  while  the  actual  facts  of  the  curriculum  con- 
stitute our  safer  criterion  of  judgment.  The  aims  of  education 
in  the  public  elementary  schools  of  the  four  countries  do  not 
differ  so  radically  as  to  dictate  a  totally  different  curriculum 
for  each.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  our  educational  theorists  have 


16  INTRODUCTION. 

sometimes  excused  themselves  from  making  a  comparative 
study  of  these  different  curricula  by  an  exaggeration  of  the 
supposed  disparity  of  aim  and  the  consequent  improbability  of 
gaining  suggestions  of  worth.  The  tables  on  the  following 
pages  show  such  a  slight  difference  of  curricula  in  the  elemen- 
tary schools  of  the  several  countries,  that  it  makes  one  suspect 
either  that  the  aim  of  education  does  not  determine  what  shall 
be  studied,  or  that  the  aims  of  the  several  countries  do  not 
differ  as  much  as  has  been  supposed. 

Perhaps  the  latter  is  the  more  correct  supposition.  It  is 
pointed  out  elsewhere  that  approximately  ninety-five  per  cent 
of  the  school  population  in  the  several  countries  attend  only 
the  elementary  school,  and  that  the  problems  of  life  toward 
the  solution  of  which  the  elementary  curriculum  is  directed 
are  simple  ones  and  largely  similar  in  the  four  countries  dis- 
cussed. This  majority  of  the  population  who  do  not  attend 
college  should,  and  probably  do,  exercise  the  controlling  in- 
fluence in  the  selection  of  the  elementary  curriculum.  Pos- 
sibly, however,  the  theorists  are  to  be  found  in  the  minority 
group,  and  hence  our  belief  in  the  ultra-importance  of  the 
aim  of  education  rather  than  of  the  needs  of  society. 

This  treatise  is  largely  suggestive,  but  such  a  comparative 
study  of  facts  as  is  here  attempted  is  necessary  to  a  real  con- 
tribution to  the  subject  of  relative  worths  in  the  elementary 
curriculum.  These  are  not  "paper"  curricula,  but  actual 
courses  of  study  made  out  for  human  beings  in  environments 
much  like  our  own.  Such  courses  will  always  furnish  pri- 
mary source  material  for  any  investigation  which  attempts  to 
arrive  at  either  real  or  ideal  conditions  in  the  curriculum  of 
the  public  elementary  schools. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  this  study  possesses  many  de- 
fects. The  immensity  of  the  field  to  be  covered  and  the  vast- 
ness  of  the  material  to  be  organized  have  forced  other  con- 
siderations into  the  background.  Frequently  amplifications! 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

which  seemed  absolutely  essential  had  to  be  abandoned;  the 
requirements  of  acceptable  English  discourse,  in  some  in- 
stances, may  have  been  violated  for  the  sake  of  brevity. 
Sometimes,  too,  scientific  method  had  to  be  abbreviated,  and 
generalizations  made  upon  rather  brief  inductions.  But  it  is 
hoped  that  other  students  who  have  been  hampered  by  similar 
limitations  will  be  able  to  make  generous  allowance  for  such 
faults. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    CURRICULUM    OP   PUBLIC    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS    IN    CITIES 
OP   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

The  general  knowledge  of  the  average  American  citizen 
regarding  the  public  elementary  school  is  such  as  to  remove 
the  necessity  of  entering  into  an  exhaustive  description  of  its 
operations.  The  facts  regarding  the  American  elementary 
curriculum  are  given  in  this  chapter  in  order  to  show  the 
content  and  relative  importance  of  subjects  as  exemplified 
by  the  practice  of  American  educators.  The  prominent  char- 
acteristics brought  out  here  will  afford  a  basis  of  comparison 
for  the  study  of  the  curricula  in  other  countries.  Much  of  the 
comparative  and  descriptive  discourse  necessary  in  later  chap- 
ters, will  therefore  be  omitted  here.  At  present  our  effort 
will  be  to  present  in  brief  form  those  facts  and  tendencies  of 
the  elementary  curriculum  not  generally  known. 

1.    The  Subjects  of  Instruction  by  Grades  in  Fifty 
Cities  of  the  United  States. 

The  first  study  presented  of  the  curricula  of  the  public 
elementary  schools  of  the  United  States  was  made  from  the 
syllabi  of  the  elementary  schools  of  the  following  fifty  cities : 
Boston,  New  York,  Kansas  City,  Kan.,  San  Francisco,  Colum- 
bus, 0.,  Cleveland,  0.,  Lowell,  Mass.,  Jersey  City,  Columbus, 
Ga.,  New  Orleans,  Chicago,  Knoxville,  Term.,  Auburn,  N.  Y., 
Buffalo,  Newark,  N.  J.,  Providence,  R.  I.,  Louisville,  Ky.,  In- 
dianapolis, Portland,  Me.,  St.  Louis,  Allegheny,  Penn.,  Joliet, 
111.,  Springfield,  111.,  Spokane,  Rochester,  St.  Paul,  Minn., 
Minneapolis,  Chester,  0.,  Toledo,  0.,  Cincinnati,  Syracuse, 

19 


20    PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

Evansville,  N.  Y.,  Gloversville,  N.  Y.,  Watertown,  N.  Y., 
Johnstown,  N.  Y.,  Detroit,  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.,  Harris- 
burg,  Atlantic  City,  Erie,  Penn.,  Hartford,  Wilmington, 
Stockton,  Cal.,  Denver,  Aurora,  111.,  Wilkesbarre,  Lewiston, 
Me.,  Philadelphia,  Springfield,  Mass.,  Johnstown,  Penn. 

These  cities  contain  a  large  percentage  of  the  population  of 
the  United  States,  and  therefore  Table  I.,  which  is  a  composite 
table  of  the  subjects  of  instruction  in  these  cities,  might  well 
be  called  the  program  of  studies  by  grades  of  the  public  ele- 
mentary schools  of  America.  The  purpose  of  this  table  is  to 
show  the  subject  matter,  and  the  distribution  of  that  subject 
matter  by  grades,  and  to  give  some  hint  as  to  the  importance 
attached  to  the  subjects  over  the  country  at  large.  The  num- 
bers in  the  columns  will  in  a  measure  indicate  all  three  of 
these  facts.  These  numbers  represent  the  number  of  cities  in 
which  a  given  subject  is  taught  within  the  particular  grade 
under  which  the  number  is  scored.  As  there  are  fifty  cities 
included  in  the  study,  it  is  evident  that  a  subject  receiving  a 
score  of  fifty  is  taught  in  all  the  city  schools  in  that  grade  in 
which  the  score  is  placed.  If  there  is  a  tendency  to  teach  a 
certain  subject  in  or  near  a  certain  grade,  then  the  table 
should  show  it  by  presenting  a  larger  score  in  that  grade  and 
probably  also  in  the  two  grades  adjoining  it.  If  a  certain 
subject  is  regarded  as  more  important  than  a  certain  other 
subject,  the  table  should  show  this  also,  by  presenting  a 
larger  total  score  if  the  columns  are  added  horizontally.  How- 
ever, if  a  subject  were  regarded  as  especially  teachable  in  one 
or  two  particular  grades  only,  a  high  score  in  those  particular 
grades  should  be  the  standard  of  measurement  of  its  impor- 
tance. 

This  composite  table  is  an  attempt  to  ascertain  by  summary 
the  course  of  study  which  in  bureaucratic  governments  is 
prescribed  by  the  central  authority.  Such  courses  of  study 
are  seen  in  Tables  LXI.  and  XLIV.,  for  France  and  Germany 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.    21 

TABLE  I. — Showing  the  Grades  and  the  Number  of  Cities  of  the 
United  States  (of  the  Fifty  Cities  selected)  in  which  the  Various 
Subjects  are  taught. 


Grade. 


I. 


II.      III.      IV.        V.      VI.     VII.    VIII.    IX. 


1  Opening  Exercises 
Morals 

9 
3 

9 
3 

9 
3 

9 
3 

9 
3 

9 
3 

9 
3 

9 
3 

2 
3 

2  Reading 

50 

50 

50 

50 

50 

48 

48 

4 

3  Writing 

40 

43 

42 

43 

4ar 

~12 

35 

34 

4 

4  Spelling 

38 

41 

42 

42 

43 

42 

44 

40 

5 

5  Grammar 

7 

10 

20 

32 

41 

41 

10 

6  Language 
7  Composition 

46 

47 

48 

49 

50 

50 

50 

48 

8 

8  Arithmetic 
Algebra 

46 

50 

50 

50 

50 

50 

50 
1 

44 

4 

8 
3 

9  Geography 

7 

9 

21 

43 

44 

43 

42 

24 

8 

10  History 

10 

11 

12 

21 

25 

31 

41 

46 

10 

11  Civics 

4 

4 

3 

3 

3 

7 

8 

8 

3 

13  Elementary   Science 
14  Nature  Study 

32 

34 

32 

30 

27 

22 

24 

22 

4 

15  Physiology 

34 

32 

34 

34 

35 

36 

33 

30 

3 

16  Physical  Training 

25 

22 

23 

24 

24 

23 

23 

23 

3 

17  Drawing 

44 

43 

45 

44 

45 

49 

47 

43 

7 

18  Music 

44 

47' 

43 

42 

43 

41 

42 

40 

5 

19  Manual    Training 

6 

6 

8 

10 

11 

11 

16 

18 

3 

20  Sewing 
Cooking 

1 

B 

li 

11 
2 

8 
4 

6 
6 

1 

21  Bookkeeping 
Stenography 

1 

2 
1 

2 

22  French 

1 

23  German 
Latin 

4 

5 

6 

6 

7 
1 

7 

1 

7 
1 

7 
2 

respectively.  In  those  countries  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Min- 
ister of  Education  on  behalf  of  the  State  prescribes  a  course 
of  study. 

If  our  schools  were  operated  in  the  same  way,  and  the  influ- 
ences of  the  different  sections  could  be  embodied  in  a  national 
course  of  study  by  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Educa- 
tion on  behalf  of  the  federal  government,  a  course  of  study 
somewhat  like  Table  I.  would  constitute  the  average  or  pattern 
from  which  others  could  be  constructed.  But  there  would  be 
much  greater  unity  than  is  to  be  found  in  Table  I.,  if  it  were 
a  table  prescribed  by  a  central  group  of  experts  employed 
by  the  government.  Generally  speaking,  either  all  the  schools 
would  teach  a  certain  subject  in  a  certain  grade,  or  none  of 
them  would.  For  instance,  the  same  reason  would  then  re- 


22     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

quire  fifty  cities  to  teach  arithmetic  in  the  first  grade  that 
requires  forty-six,  a  principle  which  does  not  seem  to  operate 
in  America  at  present.  Unless  the  authorities  of  these  four 
cities  could  show  valid  reasons  for  omitting  the  teaching  of 
the  subject  in  the  grade  prescribed,  their  whim  would  be  over- 
ruled for  the  welfare  of  the  children. 

The  table  shows  that  today,  even  after  all  our  talk  about 
the  new  education,  the  "three  R's"  are  in  the  ascendency. 

Literature  is  invariably  included  in  the  topic  language.  It 
is  also  the  subject  matter  of  the  topic  reading  in  nearly  all 
the  upper  grades.  The  old  reader  for  the  upper  grades  has 
not  survived.  In  its  place  is  to  be  found  in  the  upper  primary 
grades  a  splendidly  illustrated  book  of  selections  from  the 
best  literature,  while  literature  proper  is  the  reading  text 
for  the  upper  grammar  grades. 

A  very  large  percentage  of  these  school  programs  contain 
a  topic,  memorizing  or  declamation,  which  has  been  omitted 
from  the  present  summary.  Gems  of  literature  seem  to  form 
a  staple  for  memory  work  under  the  above  topic.  One  is 
impressed  with  the  enormous  amount  of  memorizing  provided 
for  in  the  fifty  programs  examined. 

Most  of  the  work  done  under  the  compound  topic,  ele- 
mentary science  and  nature  study,  is  what  is  termed  nature 
study  rather  than  what  is  known  strictly  as  science. 

Nature  study,  physiology,  drawing  and  music  have  all  es- 
tablished their  right  to  a  place  in  each  grade  of  the  elementary 
school.  Even  geography,  history  and  manual  training  have 
not  won  so  firm  a  position  in  all  the  grades  as  have  the  four 
former  studies.  In  fact  manual  training,  even  when  sewing, 
cooking  and  handwork  are  added  to  it,  is  not  taught  in  so 
many  of  the  fifty  cities  as  nature  study. 

It  seems  to  be  settled  that  a  foreign  language,  ancient  or 
modern,  is  not  wanted  in  the  elementary  school.  This  is  some- 
what remarkable  after  the  vigorous  agitation  upon  the  sub- 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     23 

ject  by  college  and  secondary  school  men  during  the  past  fif- 
teen years.  Even  the  Committee  of  Fifteen,  with  the  ad- 
vantage of  its  membership  of  national  educators,  seems  to 
have  had  no  effect. 

It  can  be  said  of  but  very  few  subjects  of  instruction  that 
they  are  peculiarly  the  property  of  any  certain  grade.  Rather, 
it  seems  to  be  the  practice  to  follow  the  French  plan  of  teach- 
ing in  every  grade  whatever  is  taught  in  any  grade.  History 
and  manual  training  are  perhaps  more  definitely  confined  to 
the  upper  grades  than  any  other  subjects.  This  is  particularly 
true  when  we  eliminate  from  our  consideration  as  history, 
the  historical  stories  which  constitute  the  subject  matter  of 
history  in  the  primary  grades,  and  from  our  consideration 
as  manual  training,  the  simple  handwork  of  the  children  in 
the  primary  grades. 

The  discussion  of  correlation  we  prefer  to  defer  to  another 
section.  Yet  it  is  interesting  to  notice  here  that  correlation 
between  history  and  geography  is  practically  impossible  in 
very  many  American  cities,  if  these  fifty  cities  are  in  any  de- 
gree illustrative.  In  a  large  percentage  of  the  schools  these 
two  subjects  are  not  taught  in  the  same  grade,  except  for 
the  seventh  grade.  This  statement  is  emphasized  if  it  be 
recalled  that  except  for  historical  stories  there  is  no  history  in 
the  primary  grades.  It  is  true  that  correlation  is  largely  a 
matter  of  method,  but  one  despairs  of  discovering  how  a 
method  of  correlation  can  be  economically  applied  when  the 
two  subjects  are  taught  in  different  grades. 

History  and  civics,  as  such,  do  not  occur  in  the  lower  grades. 
The  kindred  topics  which  might  legitimately  be  classed  under 
those  titles  are  historical  stories.  In  fact,  below  the  fifth 
grade  there  seems  to  exist  much  confusion  in  the  teaching  of 
history.  It  is  found  under  the  various  captions,  history  and 
civics,  history  and  literature,  historical  narratives,  historical 
stories,  myths  and  fables,  oral  history,  et  cetera,  ad  infinitum. 


24    PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

Uniformity  of  terminology  does  not  always  indicate  uni- 
formity of  content,  but  certainly  one  is  suspicious  in  reference 
to  the  uniformity  of  content  when  the  terminology  is  so  varied. 
Two  tendencies  are  shown  in  Table  I.,  which  are  much  be- 
fore the  public  at  present.  One  of  these  tendencies  is  being 
vigorously  discussed  throughout  the  country,  but  it  is  only 
beginning  to  exercise  an  influence  on  the  curriculum;  the 
other  seems  already  to  have  passed  the  point  where  ejections 
ever  occur.  The  two  subjects  in  question  are  moral  teaching 
and  physical  culture.  The  teaching  of  morals  is  receiving  a 
definite  assignment  in  a  few  of  the  school  systems,  both  under 
the  topic,  moral  culture,  and  in  opening  exercises.  It  has 
begun  its  definite  struggle  for  a  place  in  our  public  schools. 
Some  states  require  by  law  that  the  subject  of  moral  training 
be  taught  in  every  school.  This  is  true  of  Massachusetts.  It 
seems  more  firmly  settled  in  the  public  mind,  however, 
that  the  school  shall  provide  for  the  child  a  physical  training 
to  parallel  his  mental  training.  The  score  for  physical  cul- 
ture is  much  larger  than  that  for  the  teaching  of  morals. 
Evidently  the  time  has  already  come  when  a  school  to  be 
called  progressive  must  make  provision  of  some  sort  for  phys- 
ical culture. 

2.     Time  Allotments  in  the  Curricula  of  Ten  Cities 
of  the  United  States. 

The  value  attached  to  a  subject  of  instruction,  so  far  as  it 
contributes  to  the  ends  of  education,  and  so  far  as  it  is  re- 
lated in  value  to  other  subjects,  is  measured  by  the  recitation 
time  devoted  to  it.  In  order  to  show  the  value  attached  to  the 
respective  studies,  a  type  study  has  been  made  of  the  time 
allotments  to  the  various  subjects  of  instruction  in  the  ele- 
mentary schools  of  ten  American  cities,  viz.,  New  York,  Bos- 
ton, Chicago,  Cleveland,  0.,  San  Francisco,  Columbus,  Ga., 
Louisville,  Jersey  City,  New  Orleans,  and  Kansas  City,  Kan. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.    25 

The  ten  double  tables  (IL-XL),  taken  from  syllabi  of  in- 
struction in  the  public  elementary  schools  of  these  cities,  show 
the  number  of  minutes  per  week  and  the  percentage  of  time 
per  week  assigned  to  each  subject  in  each  grade.  They  also 
show  the  percentage  of  the  recitation  time  given  to  each  sub- 
ject in  the  entire  eight  year  course,  which  is  perhaps  the  best 
standard  of  measure  of  relative  importance. 

The  standards  employed  in  selecting  these  ten  cities  were 
(1)  their  geographical  distribution  over  the  country  at  large, 
and  (2)  their  value  as  types.  Preference  was  given  to  larger 
cities  whose  schools  were  typical  of  the  section  of  country  in 
which  they  are  located,  but  certain  smaller  cities  were  in- 
cluded in  order  to  present  both  aspects  of  the  city  course  of 
study.  In  this  way  it  is  hoped  that  there  has  been  secured,  in 
the  two  general  average  tables  (XII.  and  XIII.)  which  imme- 
diately follow  the  ten  city  tables,  an  average  time  allotment, 
representing  neither  the  ultra-radical  nor  the  over-conserva- 
tive, but  rather  the  present  practice  of  America  as  a  whole 
in  the  public  elementary  schools.  It  is  believed  that  these  per- 
centages represent  the  best  thought  in  our  country  upon  the 
relative  values  of  the  different  subjects. 

It  has  been  thought  best  not  to  group  the  different  subjects 
of  instruction  under  a  few  headings,  as  has  been  the  unbroken 
custom  of  other  writers  upon  this  subject  in  America.  Such 
a  grouping  destroys  the  value  of  the  table.  No  superintendent 
or  supervisor  is  called  upon  to  make  out  a  curriculum  of  a 
group  of  studies,  but  a  curriculum  of  individual  studies.  He 
needs  to  know  the  relative  time  allotted  to  each  study,  and 
not  to  a  certain  group. 

The  material  was  compiled  either  from  courses  of  study 
furnished  by  different  superintendents,  or  from  tables  worked 
out  by  them  and  sent  to  me.  The  subjects  are  given  without 
omissions,  just  as  they  were  given  to  me,  but  are  arranged  in 
uniform  order. 


26     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  II. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to  Each 
Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time  given  to 
Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  New  York 
City. 


Grade. 


I. 


II.      III.      IV.       V.      VI.     VII.    VIII.    Pet 


1  Opening    Exercises 

75 

75 

75 

75 

75 

75|       75 

75 

5.77 

3  Writing 

100 

125 

125 

75 

75 

75 

~  5.55 

6  Language1 

450|     510|     450 

375)     875 

375 

360 

320 

.•50.9 

8  Arithmetic1 

120|     150|     150 

150|     150 

200 

200 

160 

12 

9   Geography 

1 

135 

120 

120 

80 

4.38 

10  History3 

90 

120 

120 

120 

4.33 

13  Elementary  Science 

80 

80 

1.54 

14  Nature   Study 

90 

90 

90 

90 

75 

4.i« 

15  Physiology, 
16  Physical       Training, 
Organized   Games, 
Play 

200 

165 

165 

165 

90 

90 

90 

90 

10 

17  Drawing    and    Con- 
structive Work 

160 

160 

160 

120 

120 

120 

80 

80 

9.62 

18  Music 

60  j       60 

60 

60 

60 

60  1       60 

60 

4.62 

19  Manual        Training, 
Cooking 

80 

80 

1.94 

20  Sewing      and      Con- 
structive Work 

60 

60 

60 

60 

60 

60 

3.47 

23  German,          French, 
Stenography,   Latin 

200 

1.93 

Total    Recitations 

1315|  13951  1335 

T305 

1290 

1295 

1225 

1205 

Total   Assignments 

1500|  1500|  1500|  1500 

1500 

1500 

1500 

1500 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1  Opening  Exercises 

5.7|      5.2 

5.<i 

5.7 

5.8|      5.8 

6.2 

6 

2  Writing 

7.6 

8.9 

9.3 

5.7 

5.8 

5.8 

6  Language 

34.2 

36.5 

33.7 

28.5 

29.1 

29 

27.5 

25.4 

8  Arithmetic 

9.1 

10.7 

11.2 

8 

11.7 

15.5 

16.4 

12.7 

9  Geography 

|    10.3 

9.3 

6.6 

10  History 

1 

6.9 

9.3 

n 

I).  9 

!>.!> 

13  Elementary    Science 

1 

6.6 

6.4 

14  Nature    Study 

6.8  |      6.4 

6.7 

6.8 

5.8 

15      &       16      Physical 
Training 

15.2 

11.8 

12.3 

12.5 

6.9 

6.9 

7.4 

7.2 

17   Drawing,    etc. 

12.1 

11.4 

11.9 

9.1 

9.3 

9.3 

6.6 

6.4 

18  Music 

4.5 

4.3 

4.5 

4.5 

4.7 

4.7 

5 

4.8 

19  Manual   Training 

6.6 

6.4 

20  Sewing,  etc. 

4.5 

4.3 

4.5 

4.5 

4.7 

4.7 

23  German,  etc. 

15.9 

'Includes  language  lessons,  grammar,  composition,  reading,  spelling,  mem- 
orizing. 

'Includes  civics  in  Grades  VI,  VII  and  VIII. 

'Arithmetic  in  all  grades,  with  a  little  algebra  In  Grades  VII  and  VIII. 

*The  term  "total  time"  as  used  throughout  these  pages  refers  to  all  of  the 
recitation  time  assigned  either  in  the  entire  school  or  an  entire  grade. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     27 


TABLE  III. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to  Each 
Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time  given  to 
Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  Boston,  Mass. 

Grade.  I.       II.      III.      IV.       V.      VI.     VII.    VIII.     IX.    Pet. 


1  Opening    Exer-  1 
cises                 1       60 

60 

60 

30 

30 

30 

30 

30 

30 

2.9 

•2.  Reading 

600|     500|     500|     240|     240|     240|     210 

180J     180|23.3 

3  Writing 

1 

1 

4  Spelling 

120|     105|       80| 

2.4 

6  Language 

200  1     200  1     200  1     300 

300 

270|     240 

240 

255  18 

8  Arithmetic 

150|     i!10|     210|     270 

270 

270J     210|     210 

210J16.2 

9  Geography 

120|     120|     150 

150|     150|       ? 

5.5 

10  History1 

120|     150|     180 

3.63 

13  Elementary 
Science* 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

120 

4.5 

li>  Physical 
Training 

60 

90 

90 

80 

80 

80 

80 

80 

80 

6 

17  Drawing 

100|     150|     150|       »0|       90|       90 

90  1       90 

90|    7.1 

18  Music 

60|       60|       60 

60 

60  1       60 

60|       60|       60|   4.3 

19  Manual  Train- 
ing 

120 

120 

120 

120 

120 

120 

5.8 

21   Bookkeeping 

1 

75|      .61 

Play 

150|     1501     150|     100|     100|     100)     100|     100|     100| 

Total    Recitations 

1350|  1375)  1350|  1400|  1400|  1400]  1400|  1400|  1400| 

Total  Assignments |  15001  1500 1  1500|  1500|  1500 1  1500 1  1500 1  1500 1  1500 1 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Grade  per  Week. 


1  Opening   Exer- 
cises 

4.5 

4.5 

4.5 

2.1 

2.1 

2.1 

2.1 

2.1 

2.1 

2  Reading  &  Lit- 
erature 

4.4 

37.1 

37.1 

17.1 

17.1 

17.1 

15.1 

12.9 

12.9 

4   Spelling 

8.9|      7.8|      6 

1 

1 

6  Language 

14.8|    14.8 

14.8 

21.3 

21.3 

19.3 

17.1|    17.  1|    18.2 

8  Arithmetic 

11.  ij    15.6 

15.6 

19.3 

19.3 

19.3|    15.1|    15.1|    15.1 

i)  Geography 

8.5 

8.5 

10.8 

10.8|    10.8 

Y 

10  History 

8.5|     8.5 

12.9 

13  Elementary 
Science 

6.3 

6.3 

6.3 

6.3 

6.3 

8.5 

16  Physical 
Training 

4.5 

6.7 

6.7 

5.7 

5.7 

5.7 

5.7 

5.7 

5.7 

17   Drawing 

7.4 

11.1|    11.1|      6.4 

6.4 

6.4 

6.4 

6.4 

6.4  1 

18  Music 

4.5|      475]      4.5 

4.1 

4.1 

4.1 

4.1 

4.1 

4.1 

19  Manual    Train- 
ing 

8.5 

8.5 

8.5 

8.5 

8.5 

8.5 

21  Bookkeeping 

5.3 

Play 

11.1 

11.1)      7.1 

7.1 

7.1 

7.1|      7.1 

7.1 

7.1 

'Includes  civil  government  in  Grade  IX. 
'Includes  physiology. 


28     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  IV. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to  Each 
Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time  given  to 
Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  Chicago,  111. 


Grade. 


I. 


II.      III.      IV.       V.      VI.     VII.    VIII.    Pet 


1    Opening   Exercises 

23]      23!      25|      25 

25 

25 

25 

25 

1.66 

2  Reading    &    Litera- 
ture 

675 

600 

500 

250 

250 

18.8 

3  Writing 

75 

75  1     100  1     100 

60  1       60 

60 

60 

4.SS 

4  Spelling 

50 

50  1       60 

60 

tiU 

60 

60 

;{.:u 

5  Grammar 

1 

120 

160 

Kill 

3.72 

6  Language 

150 

115 

10()|       65 

65  1     145 

l"r> 

175 

8.r.» 

8  Arithmetic 

225 

225 

300  1     300 

300  1     300 

;{(io 

300 

18.6 

9  Geography 

200 

250|     200|       90 

6.12 

10  History2 

|       60 

60 

60  1     200  1     200|    4.79 

14   Nature    Study1 

100 

100 

100J     100 

90 

90  j       90  1       90  1    6.28 

Itt  Physical    Training 

50 

50 

50 

50 

50 

50|       50|       50|    3.31 

17  Drawing 

60 

75 

90 

90 

90|       90|       90|    4.84 

IS   Music 

75|       75 

75 

75|       75 

<<J 

751       75|   4.!t(> 

19  Manual   Training 

1 

|       90 

90|    1.49 

Play 

125 

125|     125|     125 

125 

125|     125 

125| 

23  German    or     Latin 

1 

300  1     300  1     300 

300  1    9.92 

Total   Recitations 

1375|  1375|  1375|  1375|  Ib75 

1575 

17t;.~. 

1675 

Total  Assignments 

1500|  1500|  1500|  1500|  1800|  1700|  1890 

l.S(M) 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1  Opening  Exercises 

1.8 

1.8 

1.8 

1.8 

1.5 

1.6 

1.4 

1.5 

'  2  Heading    &    Litera- 
ture 

49.3 

43.8 

36.5 

18.3 

14.9 

3  Writing 

5.5 

5.5 

7.3 

7.3 

3.6 

3.9 

3.4 

3.6 

4  Spelling 

3.7 

a.7 

4.4 

3.6 

3.9 

3.4 

3.6 

5  Grammar 

7.7 

6.1 

!».t> 

6  Language 

10.9 

8.4 

7.3 

4.8 

3.9 

9.2 

9.9 

10.5 

8  Arithmetic 

16.4 

16.4 

21.9 

21.!» 

17.9 

I'.l.l 

17.1 

18 

9  Geography 

14.6 

14.9 

12.8 

5.1 

10  History 

4.4 

3.6 

3.9 

11.4 

12 

14  Nature    Study 

7.3 

v.3 

7.3 

7.3 

6.4 

5.7 

5.1 

5.4 

16  Physical  Training 

3.7 

"3.7 

a.v 

3.7 

2.1 

KS 

2.8 

3 

17  Drawing 

4.4 

5.5 

5.4 

5.7 

5.1 

5.4 

18  Music 

3.5 

3.5 

3.5 

3.5 

4.5 

4.8 

4.3 

4.5 

19  Manual   Training 

5.1 

5.4 

23  German  or  Latin 

17.9 

19.1 

17.1 

18 

Play 

9.1 

.    , 
9.1 

9.1 

fl.l 

V.5 

8 

7.1 

7.5 

'Algebra  added  In  Grade  VIII. 

^Includes  civics  In  Grades  VII  and  VIII. 

'Includes  physiology  in  Grades  VI,  VII,  and  VIII. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     29 

TABLE  V. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to  Each 
Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time  given  to 
Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  New  Orleans. 


Grade. 


I. 


II.      III.      IV.        V.      VI.     VII.    VIII.    Pet. 


2  Reading      &      Litera- 
ture 

200 

200 

225 

225J     120 

120 

200 

200 

13.4 

3  Writing 

90  j       90|     100|       60|       60|       60| 

4.15 

4   Spelling 

75|       75|     100|     100|     110|     110|       90|       90|    6.77 

6  Language                        |     250  1     250  1     288  1     300  1     350  1     3501     350  1     350  1  22.30 

7   Composition 

|       30|       30|       30 

30 

1 

8  Arithmetic 

265|     265 

240|     240|     250|     250|     250|     250|18.6 

9  Geography                     |     100|     100|     15'i 

200|     110|     110|     110 

110|    8.94 

10  History                            |       50|       50|       50|       50|     140|     140|     140|     140|    6.77 

14   Nature   Study 

00]       60|       80|       60|       60|       60|       60 

60  1   4.5 

15   Physiology 

15 

15 

20|       20|       30|       30|       30|       30|    1.72 

16  Physical  Training 

50|        50|       50|       50|       50|       50|       50|       50|    3.61 

17  Drawing 

00|       00|       60|       60|       55 

55 

55|       55|    4.15 

18  Music 

60|       60  1       60|       60|       60|       60|       60|       60|   4.33 

Total   Recitations 

1275|  1275|  1425|  1425J  1425 

1425|  1425|  1425] 

Percentage   of   Recitation   Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


2  Reading    &    Litera-  | 
ture                               15.6 

15.6 

15.8 

15.8 

8.4 

8.4 

14 

14 

3  Writing                                7 

7 

7 

4.2|      4.2|      4.2 

4   Spelling                                 5.8|      5.8|      7 

7 

7.7 

7.7 

6.3 

6.3 

6  Language                          19.5 

19.5  1    20.1 

21 

24.5 

24.5|    24.5 

24.5 

7  Composition 

2.1  1      2.1  1      2.1 

L.l 

8  Arithmetic                        20.6|   20.6|    16.8 

16.8|    17.  5|    17.5|    17.5|    17.5| 

9  Geography                           7.8  1      7.8  1    10.6 

14 

7.7|     7.7|     7.7|     7.7| 

10  History                                3.9|      3.9|      3.5|      3.5|      9.8|      9.8|      9.8|      9  8| 

14   Nature   Study                     4.6|      4.6|      5.6|      4.2|      4.2|      4.2|      4.2|      4.2 

15  Physiology                            l.lj      1.1|      1.4|      1.4  1      2.1 

2.1 

2.1|      2.1 

16  Physical    Training            3.9 

3.9|      3.5|      3.5|      3.5 

3.5|      3.5|      35 

17  Drawing                              4.6 

4.6|      4.2|      4.2|      3.8  [      3.8|      3.8|      38 

18   Music                                     4.6|      4.6|      4.2|      4.2|      4.2|      4.2|      4.2|      4.2| 

»Algebra  added  in  Grade  VIII. 


30     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  VI.— Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to  Each 
Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time  given  to 
Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  San  Francisco. 


Grade. 


II.      III.      IV.       V.      VI.     VII.    VIII.    Pet 


1  Opening  Exercises 

75 

50 

50 

50 

50 

50 

50 

50 

4.4 

2  Reading    &     Litera- 
ture 

350 

350 

300 

275 

250 

160 

135 

135 

20.2 

3  \\ritiug 

100 

75 

75 

75 

75 

45 

45 

6.1 

4  Spelling 

100 

100 

100  1     100 

100|       75        75 

50 

7.2 

0  Language 

150 

150      150  1     150 

175|    175|    175[    200" 

13.7 

8  Arithmetic 

150  1     200|     225      225  1     225  1     225  1     226 

is.a 

9  Geography 

80|       80|     100|     135|     135|     135     6.9 

10  History 

1 

30|       30J       30|     110J     160|     200]    6.0 

14  Nature   Study 

50  1       '25 

50)       50|       50|       50 

50  1       50  1   3.9 

16  Physical    Training 

50 

50|       50 

50|       50|       50 

50|       50|   4.1 

17   Drawing 

60 

60 

GO 

60|       60|       60 

60  1       60 

5 

18   Music 

75 

75 

60 

60 

60 

601      e°l       60 

5.3 

19  Manual  Training 

60 

60 

1.2 

•M  Sewing 

50 

60 

60 

60 

2.4 

21   Cooking 

60 

.62 

Play                               |     100 

100 

100 

100  1     100 

100 

100|     100J 

Total  Recitations 


10101  1085|  1175| 


1285|  l^t>5|  1340 


Total   Assignments      |  1300|  1300|  1350|  1500|  1500|  1500|  1500|  1500| 

Percentage   of  Recitation   Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1   Opening    Exercises 

7.5 

4.5 

4.3 

3.7 

4 

4 

3.7  1      3.7 

2  Reading     &     Litera- 
ture 

34.2 

32.2 

26.1 

20.4 

19.5 

12.7 

10 

10 

3  Writing 

10 

6.81      6.5 

5.6 

5.6 

3.6|      3.8 

4   Spelling 

10 

9.2|      8.7|      7.4 

7.8 

6     |      5.6 

3.7 

0  Language 

14.9 

13.5 

13.1J    11.1 

13.6 

13.8|    13.2 

15 

8  Arithmetic 

13.5 

17.4  1    16.7 

17.5 

17.8 

10.9 

1  (>.!> 

9  Geography 

7     |      6 

7.8 

10.6 

1<».5 

10 

10  History 

2.2 

2.3 

9.5 

12.9 

15 

14    Nature  Study 

5 

4.5  |      2.1 

3.7 

4 

4 

3.7 

3.7 

16  Physical     Training 

5 

4.5  1      4.3 

3.7 

4 

3.9 

3.7 

3.7 

17  Drawing 

6 

5.4 

5.2 

4.5 

4.6 

4.7 

4.5 

4.5 

18  Music 

7.5 

6.8 

5.2 

4.5 

4.6 

4.7 

4.5 

4.5 

19  Manual  Training 

4.5 

4.5 

20  Sewing 

1 

3.7 

4.6 

4.7 

4.5 

21  Cooking 

4.5 

PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     31 


TABLE  VII. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to  Each 
Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time  given  to 
Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  Kansas  City, 
Kan. 


Grade.                      I.        II.      III.      IV.       V.      VI.     VII.    VIII.    Pet. 

2  Reading     &     Litera- 
ture 

150 

150 

100 

125 

125 

125 

125 

120 

14.5 

3  Writing 

V25 

100|     100 

120      120 

120  1 

9.60 

4   Spelling 

75 

150 

100 

100 

100 

100  1       75 

50 

10.7 

6  Language 

70|     100 

105 

100 

100 

100 

125 

150 

11.2 

8  Arithmetic 

150|       75|     200 

125 

125 

125 

1251     150 

15.1 

9  Geography 

10 

20 

20 

100  1     100 

100|     125|       60 

7.54 

10  History 

30  1       30 

30  1     100  1     120 

4.38 

li  Civil    Government 

30|       25  |       30 

14  Nature    Study                     20|       25|       '25 

30 

30 

30 

30  1       30 

3.11 

16  Physical    Training             10  1           | 

17  Drawing                              100  1     100 

100 

120 

120  1       90 

901       90 

11.5 

18  Music                                   100  1     100 

100|     100|     100|     100 

75|      75 

10.6 

Total   Recitations 

810  1     820 

850  1     950  1     950  1     950  1     895  1     875  1 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


"2  Reading     &     Litera- 
ture 

18.51    18.4 

11.8 

13.2 

13.2 

13.2 

14 

13.8 

3  Writing 

15.4 

12.2 

11.6 

12.6|    12.6 

12.6 

4   Spelling 

9.2 

18.4 

11.8 

10.5 

10.5 

10.5)      8.4 

5.7 

6  Language 

8.5 

12.1 

12.5 

10.5 

10.5 

10.5|    14 

17.2 

8  Arithmetic 

18.5 

9.1 

23.6 

13.2 

13.2|    13.2|    14 

17 

9  Geography 

1.2 

2.4 

2.4 

10.2 

10.5 

13.2|    14 

6.8 

10  History 

3.1  |      3.1 

3.1|    11.2|    13.8 

ii   Civil   Government 

3.1  1      2.8  1      3.4 

14   Nature   Study 

2.4 

3 

2.9 

3.1 

3.1 

3.3 

3.41      3.4 

16  Physical    Training 

o 

17  Drawing                         |    12.3 

12.2 

11 

10.5 

10.5 

13.2 

8.4 

8.6 

18  Music 

12.3 

12.2 

11.8 

10.5 

10.5|    13.2|      8.4 

8.6| 

32     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  VIII. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to  Each 
Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time  given  to 
Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  Jersey  City. 


Grade.                      I.        II.      III.      IV. 

V.      VI.     VII.    VIII.    Pet 

1  Opening   Exercises      |       50  1       50  1       50  1       50  1       50 

50|       60  1       50  1   3.74 

"2  Heading                             5W|    500  j    450  j    405 

370 

310|     280|     270|30 

3  Writing                             iuo|     100 

loo 

100  1       90  1       90  1       70[      85  1    6.86 

5  &     0     Language     & 
Grammar                       125 

125 

125 

160 

180 

190 

230 

260 

10.3 

8  Arithmetic                         225      '245 

270  1     280 

270 

270     270 

270 

19.5 

9  Geography 

80  1     100 

125 

145J     145|     130 

6.78 

10  History 

60|       90|     100|     137 

3.62 

14   Nature  Study                      30|       30|       40 

40]       45|       45 

45 

52 

3 

15  Physiology                             20|       '20  \       30 

30|       30|       30 

30 

30 

'2 

16  Physical     Training          155|     135 

120 

100  1       50  1       50 

50 

50 

17  Drawing                              80 

80 

80 

80  1       90|       90 

90 

90 

6.86 

18   Music                                     00 

00  1       60 

60  1       45 

45 

45 

45 

3.93 

Morals  &  Manners            '20 

20  1       20 

20|       20|       20|       20 

20]    1.5 

Total   Recitations           1270  1  1290|  13061  1325 

1375 

1375 

13  75 

I4:t'.i| 

Total    Assignments        1425  1  1425 

1425|  1425  |  14251  1425 

14  IT) 

1489| 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1  Opening    Exercises 

4     |      3.9|      3.8|      3.8|      3.7|      3.7 

3.7|      3.5| 

2  Heading 

44.1|    43.4|    34 

30 

27 

22.7 

20.5 

18.9 

3  Writing 

7.9|      7.8 

7.7 

7.6 

6.6 

6.6 

6.6 

6.3 

5  Grammar  &  Language 

9.9|      9.7 

9.6 

12 

13.2 

13.9 

16.8 

18.2 

8  Arithmetic 

17.7|    19 

20 

21.3 

19.7 

19.7 

19.7 

18.51 

9  Geography 

| 

6.2 

7.6 

9.1 

10.6 

10.6 

D.I 

10  History 

! 

4.4 

6.6 

7.3 

9.6 

14   Nature   Study 

2.4  1      2.4 

3 

3     |      3.3 

3.3 

3.3 

3.7 

15  Physiology 

1.6 

1.6 

2.3  1      2.3  1      2.2 

2.2 

2.2 

2.1 

16  Physical     Training 

11 

9.5 

8.5|      7.1|      5 

5 

5 

3.4 

17   Drawing 

6.3 

6.3 

6.2|      6.1  1      6.6 

6.6 

6.6 

6.3 

18  Music 

4.8 

4.7|      4.6 

4.6|      3.3 

3.3 

3.3 

3.2 

Morals  &  Manners 

1.6 

1.6 

1.5 

1.5|      1.5 

1.5 

1.5 

1.4 

PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.    33 


TABLE  IX. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  week  devoted  to  Each 
Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time  given  to 
Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  Columbus, 
Georgia. 


Grade.                      I. 

II.       III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII.    VIII.    Pet. 

1  Opening    Exercises      |       75 

75j       75|       75 

75)       75)       75|       75 

5.18 

2  Reading 

500 

300 

300  1     240  1     240  1     200  1       90  1       60 

16.7 

3  Writing 

75|       75 

100J     100J       60|       60J       40 

30|    4.11 

4  Spelling 

100  1     150 

140|     120 

120 

100  |       60 

30 

6.38 

6  Language 

200 

220 

220  1     250 

300  1     300  1     300  1     300 

18.1 

8  Arithmetic 

225 

225|     275)     300|     300)     325|     300|     205 

18.6 

Algebra 

1          i          1 

220 

1.9 

9  Geography 

80  1     200  1     225  1     250  1     285 

200 

|10.7 

10  History 

1 

250|     180|    3.71 

17  Drawing 

60  1       60 

00 

60 

75 

75|       65|       40|   4.27 

18  Music 

70  1       70 

70 

70 

70|       70|       60 

60  1    4.34 

19  Manual    Training 

45 

45 

60|       «0|       60|       60|       90 

90 

4.47 

24  Latin 

230 

2. 

Play 

200|     200|     20<)|     200|     150|     150|     150|     150| 

Total   Assignments 

1850)  1350|  1500|  1500 

1550 

1550|  1530|  1520| 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1   Opening    Exercises 

5.6 

5.6 

5. 

5. 

4.9 

4.9 

5. 

5. 

2  Reading 

37.1    |22.2    |20. 

16.1    |15.3   |13. 

5.9 

4. 

3  Writing 

5.6 

5.6 

676^ 

6.67  1    3.9 

3.9 

2.6 

2.1 

4   Spelling 

7.4    |11.1 

9.3 

8.1 

7.8 

6.5 

3.9 

2.1 

6  Language 

14.8    |16.3    |14.6   |17.1    |19.4    |19.4    |19.6 

20. 

8  Arithmetic                      |16.7    |20.4    |18.2    |20.      |19.4 

21. 

19.6 

13.5 

Algebra 

1 

4.5 

9  Geography 

5.9 

13.3 

15.7 

16.1 

18.4    (13.1 

10  History 

|16.4    |12. 

17   Drawing 

4.5 

4.5 

4. 

4. 

4.9 

4.9    |   4.3 

2.8 

18  Music 

5.2 

5.2 

4.7 

4.7 

4.5 

4.5 

3.9 

4. 

19  Manual    Training 

3.4 

3.4 

4. 

4. 

3.9 

3.9 

3.9 

6. 

24  Latin 

15. 

Play 

12.9    |12.9    |11.  7 

11.8 

7.83 

8.82  1    8.84  1   9. 

34    PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

TABLE  X. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  week  devoted  to  Each 
Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time  given  to 
Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  Louisville,  Ky. 


Grade. 


II.      III.       IV.        V.      VI.     VII.    VIII.    Pet. 


1  Opening    Exercises 

25|       25|       25]       25 

25 

25  1       25 

25  1    1.93 

•2  Heading     and     Lit- 
erature 

500 

500 

425)    335 

230 

155 

150 

150 

23.5 

3  Writing 

50 

100 

100 

90 

70 

70 

i 

4.62 

4  Spelling 

100 

100 

100 

75 

75 

751       75  1   5.77 

5  Grammar 

150J     150J   2.89 

6  Language 

100 

220 

250 

150 

1 

1 

6.93 

7  Composition 

1 

150|     150|     135|     135j    5.4!> 

8  Arithmetic 

100|     205 

250|     250|     250|     250|     240|     240 

17.2 
9.86 

9  Geography 

1 

200  1     220]     220  1     200  1     185 

10  History 

1 

|     125|     150|     150|   4. 

14  Nature  Study 

75 

75  1       60 

75  1   2.75 

15  Physiology 

1 

|       40|       40 

.77 

16  Physical    Training 

50|       50|       50|       50  1        50  1 

2.41 

17  Drawing 

75|       75|       75|       75 

90  1       90 

90 

90  1    6.35 

18  Music 

50|       75|        75|       75 

75|       75 

75 

75|    5.53 

Play 

100|     150|     150J     150 

150J     150 

150|     150| 

Total  Assignments 

950|  1350 

1350|  1350|  1350 

1350J  13.r,o|  1350| 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1   Opening    Exercises 

2.7 

1.9 

1.9 

1.9 

1.9 

1.9 

1.9 

1.9 

2  Reading     and     Lit- 
erature 

52.7 

37.1 

31.5 

24.8 

17.1 

11.1 

11.1 

11.1 

3  Writing 

3.3 

7.4 

7.4 

6.7 

5.2 

5.2 

4  Spelling 

7.4 

7.4 

7.4 

5.6 

5.6 

5.6 

5.6 

5  Grammar 

11.1 

11.1 

6  Language 

10.6 

16.3 

18.5 

11.1 

7   Composition 

11.1 

"'I 

10. 

10. 

8  Arithmetic 

10.6 

15.2 

18.5 

18.5 

18.5 

18.5 

IT.s 

17.8 

9  Geography 

14.8 

16.3 

16.3 

14.8 

13.7 

10  History 

9.3 

11.1 

11.1 

14   Nature   Study 

5.6 

5.6 

4.5 

s.e 

" 

16  Physical    Training 

5.3 

3.7 

3.7 

3.7 

17   Drawing 

7.9 

5.6 

5.6 

5.6 

6.7 

« 
6.7 

?-7, 

6.7 

IS  Music 

5.3 

5.6 

5.6 

5.6 

5.6 

5.6 

5.6 

r>.<; 

Play 

10. 

10. 

10. 

10. 

10.  ' 

10. 

10. 

10. 

PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     35 


TABLE  XI. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to  Each 
Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time  given  to 
Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  Cleveland,  O. 


Grade. 


I. 


II.      III.      IV.       V.      VI.     VII.    VIII.    Pet. 


1  Opening  Exercises 

25]       25]       25]       25|       25[       25 

25  1       25 

1.76 

2  Reading     and     Lit- 
erature 

550 

530 

525 

335 

195 

195 

210 

210 

25. 

3  Writing 

75|     105|     125 

90 

70|       70|       701 

5.43 

4   Spelling 

125  1     100 

125 

75|       75|       75|       45|   5.6 

6  Language 

125 

155|     135 

125 

290J     290|     250|     270J14.7 

8  Arithmetic 

150|     155|     225|     250|     270|     270|     300|     300|17.2 

9  Geography 

|     200  1     245  1     245  1 

|   6.22 

10  History 

1             1 

160 

175  1   3. 

13  Elementary   Science 

|       80 

80  1    1.45 

15  Physiology 

20|       25|       25|       25)       40|       40|       40|       40|    2.3 

lt>  Physical  Training 

50  1       50 

50|       50|       50|       50 

50|       40|    3.52 

17  Drawing 

60|       80|       G0|       65|       70|       70 

70)       85  1   5. 

18  Music 

60|       75|       60|       65|       70|       70 

70 

75 

4.91 

19  Manual    Training 

60|       80|       70|       45| 

2.3 

21  Bookkeeping 

1             1 

50 

.45 

Play 

25|     100|     100|     100|     lOT) 

100  1     100  1     100  1 

Total    Assignments 

1175|  1400|  1400|  1400]  1400  1  1400  1  1400  1  1400  1 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1   Opening   Exercises 

2.2 

1.81 

1.81 

1.43 

1.7 

1.7 

1.43 

1.7 

2  Heading     and     Lit- 
erature 

47.3 

38.1 

37.4 

23.9 

13.4 

13.4 

14.6 

14.6 

3  Writing 

6.4 

7.5 

8.9 

6.4 

4.8 

4.8 

5. 

4   Spelling 

8.9 

7.1 

8.9 

5.2 

5.2 

5.3 

3.1 

6  Language 

10.7 

11.1 

9.6 

8.9 

20 

20 

18 

19.4 

8  Arithmetic 

12.9 

11.1 

16 

18 

18.5 

18.5 

21.5 

21.5 

9  Geography 

14.5 

16.8 

16.8 

10  History 

12.1 

12.6 

13  Elementary   Science 

5.3 

5.3 

15  Physiology 

1.7 

1.8 

1.8 

1.8 

2.8 

2.8 

2.8 

2.8 

16  Physical     Training 

4.3 

3.5 

3.6 

3.6 

3.4 

3.4 

3.6 

2.8 

17  Drawing 

5.2 

5.7 

4.2 

4.7 

4.8 

4.8 

5 

6.1 

18  Music 

5.2 

5.3 

4.2 

4.7 

4.8 

4.8 

5 

5.4 

19  Manual    Training 

5.2 

5.7 

5 

3.2 

21  Bookkeeping 

3.5 

Play 

2 

6.6 

6.6 

6.4 

6.4 

6.4 

6.6 

6.5 

36     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

In  the  tables  II.-XI.  (pages  26-36),  the  minutes  per  week  de- 
voted to  each  subject  in  each  grade  are  given  first.  The  last 
column  to  the  right  in  each  table  shows  the  percentage  of  total 
time  allotted  to  each  subject  in  the  whole  of  the  eight  year  ele- 
mentary course.  In  other  words,  it  shows  the  relative  impor- 
tance which  a  subject  holds  in  the  curriculum  by  virtue  of  the 
time  allotted  to  it,  in  comparison  with  that  assigned  to  other 
subjects.  Just  beneath  this  first  table  on  each  page  is  a  second 
one  showing  the  percentage  of  time  devoted  to  each  subject  in 
each  grade.  In  the  former  case  the  total  recitation  time  in  the 
entire  elementary  school  is  used  as  a  basis  of  calculation;  in 
the  latter  the  total  recitation  time  of  the  respective  grade  is 
used.  For  instance,  the  12  per  cent  of  total  recitation  time 
for  arithmetic,  appearing  in  the  last  column  to  the  right  in 
the  upper  half  of  Table  II.,  was  calculated  by  using  the  sum 
of  the  figures  in  the  horizontal  column  marked  "Arithmetic" 
as  a  dividend,  and  the  sum  of  the  horizontal  column  marked 
"  Total  Recitation"  as  a  divisor.  The  9.1  per  cent  of  recita- 
tion time  devoted  to  arithmetic  in  the  first  grade,  as  it  appears 
in  the  lower  half  of  Table  II.,  was  calculated  by  using  the  one 
hundred  and  twenty  minutes  of  first  grade  recitation  time  as- 
signed to  arithmetic  in  the  upper  half  of  the  table  as  a  divi- 
dend and  1315  minutes  of  total  first  grade  weekly  recitation 
time  as  a  divisor. 

Some  of  the  questions  which  one  naturally  asks  of  such 
tables,  displaying  the  time  allotted  to  the  various  subjects  of 
instruction  in  the  elementary  school  curriculum,  are : 

Should  provision  be  made  for  teaching  every  subject  in 
every  grade,  such  as  is  commonly  made  for  teaching  arithme- 
tic and  language  in  all  grades  from  the  first  to  the  eighth  ? 

Should  there  be  a  uniform  increase  or  decrease  of  time 
from  the  first  grade  onward? 

Should  there  be  fewer  minutes  per  week  of  recitation  time 
in  the  earlier  grades,  or  should  the  time  be  somewhat  equally 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     37 

distributed  to  all  grades,  and  the  quantity  of  intellectual  work 
and  handwork  vary  instead  ? 

Should  the  average  number  of  minutes  per  week  of  recita- 
tion time  approximate  one  thousand  or  one  thousand  and  five 
hundred  ? 

Is  there  good  reason  why  arithmetic  and  grammar  should 
be  taught  in  tne  earlier  grades,  while  history,  literature,  geog- 
raphy, etc.,  should  not  be  taught? 

Does  the  curriculum  provide  for  the  aesthetic,  the  volitional, 
the  emotional,  the  physical,  the  moral,  as  well  as  the  intellec- 
tual aspects  of  the  child's  mind  and  experience? 

Are  there  subjects  which  are  not  needed  in  the  life  of  the 
average  citizen,  or  do  such  subjects  monopolize  the  recitation 
time  to  the  exclusion  of  others  that  do  clearly  fit  certain  social 
needs  of  people  in  general? 

Is  there  provision  for  the  interests  of  the  child? 

What  is  the  relative  proportion  of  desk  work  to  physically 
active  work  required  by  the  curriculum? 

The  answers  that  are  being  given  to  these  questions  in  per- 
haps the  majority  of  American  schools  are  illustrated  in  the 
ten  preceding  tables.  The  answers  that  other  progressive 
cities  in  other  parts  of  the  world  are  giving  will  be  found  in 
later  chapters.  The  development  of  these  answers  will  con- 
stitute the  task  of  this  entire  study.* 

3.    Average  Time  Allotments  and  What  They  Show. 

The  two  following  tables,  XII.  and  XIII.,  afford  a  basis 
for  comparing  the  previous  ten  tables.  This  comparison  pre- 
sents certain  representative  suggestions  as  to  the  attempts  of 

•They  are  only  stated  In  the  outset  that  the  reader  may  not  miss  the 
purpose  of  the  rather  exhaustive  tabulations  which  are  pursued  In  the 
course  of  this  Investigation.  If  any  question  does  not  appear  to  be  answered 
as  fully  as  the  reader  may  desire  In  the  discussion,  a  casual  reference  to 
the  tables  will  doubtless  offer  the  more  complete  Information  sought.  Fre- 
quently facts  have  not  been  repeated  In  the  body  of  the  discussion  which 
are  more  graphically  shown  in  the  tabular  form. 


38     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


American  educators  to  solve  some  of  the  problems  which  have 
so  far  been  pointed  out  in  these  pages. 

TABLE  XII. — Showing  the  Average  Time  in  Minutes  per  Week  given 
to  Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade  in  Ten  American  Cities. 


Grade                                 I.        II.       III.      IV.       V.      VI.     VII.    VIII. 

1   Opening    Exercises                  |       43  1       «  |       43  1       40 

40  1      40 

40 

40 

2  Reading  and  Literature 

443 

404 

367  1    373 

232  1    160 

142 

129 

3  Writing 

80 

78 

91 

79 

62 

62 

28 

22 

4   Spelling 

47  1       90 

81 

73 

67 

62 

44 

33 

5  Grammar 
6  Language  and 
7  Composition 

130 

146 

144 

158 

176 

224 

254 

256 

8  Arithmetic 

161  1     195 

232 

239  |     241 

249 

242 

231 

9  Geography 

ill     20 

53 

156|     164 

150 

127 

61 

10  History    and 
11  Civil  Government 

5 

5 

5 

17 

41 

171 

152 

160 

13  Elementary    Science    and 
14  Nature   Study 

35 

35 

34 

46 

51 

44 

M 

49 

15  Physiology 

7|          7 

8|         8 

13 

13 

8 

8 

16  Physical  Training 

52 

49 

50  1       49 

42 

37 

37 

37 

17  Drawing 

75 

85|       88|       82 

86 

92 

78 

77 

18  Music 

07|       71)       081       68 

67 

67 

64 

64 

19  Manual  Training 

10|       18|       19|       33|       30|       30 

n 

50 

Total    Assignments 


1174|  1250|  1285|  1401|  1313|  1404 


1327|  I'-' 4.) 


Showing  the  Average  Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  given  to  Each 
Subject  in  Each  Grade  in  Ten  American  Cities. 


1  Opening  Exercises 

3.6|      3.4  1      3.4 

3.5|      2.9 

2.9|      2.9|      2.9 

2  Reading  and  Literature 

;5O 

31.8|    28.7 

lio.ti 

17 

12.2 

T0.4 

9.5 

3  Writing 

6.7 

6.1 

771 

5.9 

4.5 

4.5 

2 

1.6 

4  Spelling 

3.9 

7.1 

6.3 

5.5 

4.9 

4.6 

3.2 

2.4 

5  Grammar 
6  Language  and 
7  Composition 

10.9 

10.1 

10.1 

10.1 

10.2 

16.5 

18.6 

18.8 

8  Arithmetic 

13.6  1    15.4 

18.2 

18    |    17.6 

18.3 

17.7 

17 

9  Geography 

.9|      1.5|      4.1|    11.8|    12 

11.1 

9.3 

5.9 

10  History,  etc. 

.4|         .4|         .4|      1.2  1      3 

5.2 

11.1 

12 

13  Elementary   Science,  etc. 

2.!» 

2.8|      2.6|      3.4|      3.7 

3.2 

4.2 

3.6 

15  Physiology 

.5 

.6 

.6)        .6|        .9 

.9 

.6 

.6 

16  Physical    Training 

4.3 

3.9 

3.9|      3.7|      3 

2.7 

2.7 

2.7 

17  Drawing 

6.3 

6.9 

6.8|      6.1  1      6.2 

6.7 

5.7 

Ti.ti 

18  Music 

r,.<; 

5.6|      5.31      5.1|      4.9 

4.9 

4.6 

4.7 

19  Manual  Training 

1.3 

1.4|      1.4|      2.5|      2.1 

2.2 

3.6 

8.6 

PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     39 

TABLE  XIII. — Showing  the  Percentage  of  Total  Time  given  to  Bach 
Study  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  Ten  American  Cities. 


Boston. 

Chicago. 

oco 

IS 

O~ 

as 

£ 

3* 

8?* 

50  ii 
So 

t-9 

OB 

08  . 

01   >> 

O  *•' 

&z 

•2.2 

3:2 

3* 

t<   . 

°a 
•f  a 
Z  <u 
fc~ 

M 

fcS 
gH 

a 

1 

M 

az 
$v 

£  a; 
|» 

1   Opening    Exercises 

2.9|    1.6|    1.7|    5.1|   3.7|    1 

1.9|    1.5|   5.7 

4.4 

3.1 

2  Reading  and    Liter- 
ature 

23.3 

18.8 

23.6 

16.9 

30 

14.5 

23.9 

13.4 

l 

20.2 

20.7 

3  Writing 

1 

4.8|    5.4|   4.1|    6.8 

9.6|    4.6 

4.1 

5.5 

5.1|   4.7 

4   Spelling 

2.4|    3.3|    5.6|    6.3|     * 

10.7  1   5.7 

5.1|    2.9|    7.2 

4.7 

5  Grammar 
6  Language 
7  Composition 

17.7 

11.9 

16.1 

18.1 

10.3 

11.1 

12.5 

17.6 

30.9 

13.7 

14.4 

8  Arithmetic 

16.2|  18.6|  17.  3|  18.6|  19.5|  15.1  117.2|  18.6|12 

15.3  17.3 

9  Geography 

5.5|   6.1|   tt.2|10.7|   b.7|   7.5|   9.8|   8.9|   4.3    6.9(  7.2 

10  History 
11  Civil    Government 

3.6 

4.7 

3 

3.7 

3.6 

6.6 

4 

5.7 

4.3 

6.6 

4.8 

13  Elementary    Science 
14  Nature   Study 

4.5 

6.2 

1.4 

3 

3.1 

2.7 

4.5 

5.6 

3.9 

3.4 

15  Physiology 

2.3| 

2 

.7 

1.7|   2 

8 

.7 

16  Physical  Training 

6 

3.3|    3.5| 

2.4 

3.6|    8 

4.1 

4.7 

17  Drawing 

7.1|    4.8]    5     |    4.2|    6.4|11.5|    6.4|   4.1|    9.6  1   5 

6.4 

18  Music 

4.8  1    4.9|    4.9|    173]    3.9J10.6J    5.5  1   4.3)   4.6J    5.3 

5.1 

19  Manual  Training4 

5.8|    1.5|    2.3|    4.4|          | 

5.4  \4 

2.4 

'Included  with  language, 
included  with  reading. 
•Included  with  nature  study. 
^Includes  cooking  and  sewing. 


In  many  of  the  subjects  of  instruction  there  is  a  wide  range  of 
variation  as  to  the  recitation  time  assigned.  Yet  in  the  ten  city 
schools,  as  a  whole,  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic  show  their 
traditional  supremacy  in  the  school  curriculum  by  monopoliz- 
ing 43  per  cent  of  the  entire  time.  For  if  we  include  in  the 
definition  of  formal  studies,  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  spell- 
ing and  language,  it  can  be  said  for  these  ten  elementary  schools 
that  the  formal  studies  receive  62  per  cent  of  the  assigned  time, 
while  the  numerous  studies  known  as  content  studies  receive 
but  little  more  than  30  per  cent.  All  of  which  suggests  that 
getting  a  subject  introduced  into  a  curriculum,  and  getting  it 
taught  after  it  has  been  introduced,  are  entirely  different  mat- 
ters. Evidently  the  advocates  of  such  studies  as  nature  study, 
manual  training,  drawing,  music,  etc.,  still  have  a  battle  to 


40    PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

wage  in  order  to  secure  a  fair  apportionment  of  time  for  their 
favorites.  It  is  noticed  elsewhere  that  New  York  City  is  a 
remarkable  exception  in  this  respect,  since  it  allows  about  42 
per  cent  of  time  to  these  new  studies.  Whether  this  dispropor- 
tion in  the  other  cities  is  due  to  opposition  from  society  and  the 
environment,  or  to  indifference  upon  the  part  of  the  superin- 
tendents, it  is  difficult  to  say.  But  it  is  fair  to  remark  that  the 
content  studies  are  receiving  more  attention  today  than  ever 
before  in  the  public  elementary  schools  of  America.  For,  if 
it  be  remembered  that  literature  is  included  in  the  topic  lan- 
guage, and  that  reading,  as  it  is  taught  in  these  latter  years, 
is  to  a  very  large  degree  good  literature,  then  the  62  per  cent 
just  mentioned  should  be  diminished  to  nearly  50  per  cent, 
which  would  mean  that  there  is  about  an  equal  allotment  of 
time  to  formal  and  content  studies,  provided  literature  may 
be  counted  with  content  studies.  This  conclusion  is  corrobo- 
rated in  a  study  made  for  the  Massachusetts  Board  of  Educa- 
tion under  the  title,  "Course  of  Study  in  Elementary 
Schools"  (pp.  31  and  32),  by  Mr.  John  T.  Prince  in  1896, 
although  I  think  his  study  rather  exaggerated  the  time  devoted 
to  content  studies  at  that  time,  because  of  the  fallacy  of  selec- 
tion in  the  group  of  cities  which  he  used.  His  selections 
were  confined  too  exclusively  to  cities  of  Massachusetts. 

Of  the  new  studies  introduced  in  recent  years,  drawing  and 
music  are  the  most  popular.  Tables  I.,  XII.,  and  XIII.  show 
this.  Table  I.  shows  that  they  are  taught  in  every  grade  in 
75  per  cent  of  the  fifty  schools;  in  Tables  II.-XIII.  they 
appear  to  follow  a  steady  time  assignment,  freed  from  the 
irregularity  of  recitation  time  common  to  many  other  newly 
introduced  subjects  as  they  progress  from  lower  to  higher 
grades.  At  first  it  appears  a  little  remarkable  that  these  two, 
of  all  the  subjects  which  have  struggled  for  introduction  to 
the  elementary  course  of  study  in  recent  years,  should  receive 
the  larger  and  more  systematic  attention.  But  the  tendency 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.    41 

is  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  historical  development  of  all 
science  in  general,  and  of  the  elementary  curriculum  in  par- 
ticular. It  is  an  historical  fact  that  we  teach  those  subjects  for 
many  years  which  are  less  useful,  before  introducing  those 
that  are  fundamentally  essential.  We  make  scientific  study 
of  those  activities  which  are  to  be  classed  among  the  luxuries, 
before  we  begin  to  investigate  those  which  are  of  every  day 
service.  We  seem  to  consider  the  study  which  is  more  intrin- 
sically serviceable  to  be  uneducative  and  beneath  the  dignity 
of  the  scientist.  Men  studied  music  long  before  they  did 
farming,  alchemy  before  chemistry,  and  the  theory  of  peda- 
gogy centuries  before  real  school  teaching.  Even  during  the 
last  six  months,  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  New  York 
City  schools  has  been  incessantly  disciplined  by  the  public 
press  for  giving  too  much  time  in  those  schools  to  what  are 
popularly  called  "the  fads  and  frills,"  a  term  which  embraces 
such  subjects  as  manual  training,  cooking,  sewing,  etc.  So, 
while  at  present  true  to  the  process  of  historical  development 
in  the  elementary  curriculum,  let  us  hope  that  this  particular 
stage  shall  not  enthrall  us  so  long  that  those  subjects  really 
needed  by  the  child  in  society  shall  be  postponed  unnecessarily 
long  by  the  introduction  of  those  which  might  well  be  delayed. 

It  is  noticeable  that  while  physiology  and  hygiene  receive 
the  least  time  allotment  of  all  subjects,  they  are  taught  in 
every  grade  in  three-fourths  of  the  fifty  schools  from  which 
Table  I.  was  made.  While  physical  training,  as  shown  on  that 
table,  was  taught  by  slightly  fewer  cities,  yet  it  receives  in 
these  ten  courses  of  study  seven  times  the  allotment  that 
physiology  and  hygiene  do,  and  twice  as  much  as  manual 
training. 

In  reference  to  manual  training,  by  comparing  this  and 
the  preceding  tables,  it  will  be  seen  that  manual  training  can 
hardly  yet  be  said  to  have  entered  the  elementary  school  at 
all.  It  is  taught  in  but  few  of  the  fifty  schools  mentioned, 


42    PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

and  receives  relatively  little  time  in  these  ten  typical  school 
courses,  and  that  mostly  in  the  two  upper  grades. 

Again,  the  absence  of  correlation  between  history  and 
geography  in  the  lower  grades  is  noticeable.  History  receives 
scarcely  any  recitation  time  before  the  sixth  grade,  while 
geography  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  grades  receives  nearly  as 
much  time  as  language,  composition  and  grammar  combined. 
In  the  sixth,  seventh  and  eighth  grades,  where  history  receives 
its  largest  proportion  of  time,  geography  receives  its  least, 
the  time  assignment  for  geography  decreasing  until  the  eighth 
grade,  where  it  has  barely  eighty-one  minutes  a  week. 

4.    Analysis  of  the  Various  Subjects  of  Instruction 
into  Topics. 

From  a  study  of  the  following  tables  (XIV.-XVIIL),  it  is 
evident  that  in  most  elementary  schools  there  is  a  congestion 
of  subject  matter  in  the  curriculum.  Such  an  enormous  num- 
ber of  unrelated  topics  is  presented  to  the  child  that  organiza- 
tion into  a  unified  whole  is  almost  impossible  by  any  mind, 
much  less  by  the  untrained  mind  of  the  child.  It  has  already 
been  shown  that  new  subjects  have  been  added  while  old  ones 
have  been  omitted.  Whether  we  wish  it  or  not,  the  public 
has  decided  that  all  the  subjects  of  instruction  now  being 
taught  in  the  elementary  curriculum  shall  remain.  That  is 
not  a  pedagogical  question  at  present,  but  a  social  demand. 
It  is  true,  the  educational  innovator  introduced  the  new 
subjects  for  what  seemed  to  him  sound  pedagogical  reasons. 
Now,  however,  the  plain  citizen  has  gone  a  step  farther,  and 
has  decided  not  only  to  keep  the  new  but  to  retain  all  the  old 
studies  also.  In  introducing  new  subjects  the  enthusiastic 
educator  said  that  they  were  more  practical  than  the  old 
formal  studies.  To  this  the  citizen  assented,  for  the  citizen 
is  nothing  if  not  practical.  But  the  citizen  added  that  since 
other  subjects  had  done  good  service  for  a  long  time,  all 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     43 

should  be  retained,  in  order  that  the  practical  and  the  formally 
theoretic  might  each  receive  attention.  Thus  the  pedagogue 
has  lost  on  his  own  proposition,  because  of  the  absence  of  any 
principle  of  selection  and  omission  in  making  up  the  course  of 
study  prescribed  by  the  "new  education." 

There  is,  therefore,  no  hope  of  relieving  the  overcrowded 
curriculum  by  omitting  subjects.  Whatever  relief  is  to  be 
had  must  come  from  such  an  organization  of  topics  under 
these  large  subjects  as  will  omit  the  irrelevant.  But  what  is 
to  be  the  standard  of  the  measurement  of  relative  importance  ? 
Upon  certain  details  of  this  question  there  will  inevitably  be 
disagreement.  Because  of  the  existence  of  different  standards 
and  different  environmental  influences,  some  will  decide  for 
one  topic  and  some  for  another.  But  if  it  is  generally  agreed 
that  omission  of  topics  is  necessary,  and  that  one  method 
of  selection  and  omission  is  by  the  organic  grouping  of  many 
of  these  detailed  topics  under  a  few  large  ones,  relief  of  the 
present  overcrowding  can  be  accomplished,  notwithstanding 
such  difference  of  opinion. 

Yet  it  does  seem  that  the  standard  for  the  selection  of  sub- 
ject matter  for  the  curriculum,  which  has  been  so  vigorously 
advocated  during  the  past  few  years,  might  well  be  applied 
to  the  topics  within  those  subjects.  That  standard  has  been 
based  upon  our  social  needs.  It  has  been  held  that  whatever 
society  really  needs,  as  determined  by  its  economic,  ethical, 
literary  and  spiritual  activities,  should  be  taught  to  the  young 
citizen  in  the  schools,  so  far  as  the  nature  of  the  child  will 
allow.  Why  should  not  this  same  severe  test  be  applied  to  the 
topics  in  both  the  old  and  the  newly  introduced  subjects  of  the 
curriculum?  A  glance  at  an  analysis  into  the  topics  of  the 
curriculum  of  any  American  city  school  will  show  that  topics 
which  cannot  be  said  to  fulfil  the  conditions  of  the  foregoing 
standard  are  to  be  found  in  both  the  old  and  the  new  studies. 
Better  organization  of  the  topics  in  the  various  subjects  of 


44     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

recent  introduction  is  needed;  many  of  them  ought  to  be 
omitted  outright  and  many  others  combined.  The  old  studies, 
such  as  arithmetic,  language,  history,  geography  and  spell- 
ing, may  not  so  much  need  the  grouping  of  smaller  topics 
under  larger  ones,  as  they  need  out-and-out  omissions,  when 
tested  by  the  standard  of  social  value  suggested  above.  And 
yet,  such  is  the  difference  of  topics  in  the  schools  represented 
in  the  ten  city  schools  from  which  this  study  was  made, 
especially  in  reference  to  history  and  geography,  that  but 
casual  study  will  reveal  that  some  of  the  old  studies  need 
organization  quite  as  much  as  the  new  ones.  It  might  be 
more  nearly  correct,  therefore,  to  say  that  all  the  subjects  in 
the  curriculum  at  present  are  woefully  in  need  of  a  more 
careful  selection  of  the  material  within  them,  and  a  co-ordi- 
nation of  various  related  topics  which  at  present  stand  isolated 
in  the  syllabi  and  text-books. 

The  argument  for  this  re-organization  is  readily  found  by 
analyzing  the  subjects  arithmetic,  language,  history,  geog- 
raphy and  nature  study,  in  the  following  tables  of  topics. 
These  topics  were  copied  just  as  given  in  the  various  courses 
of  study  printed  by  the  superintendents  of  schools  in  the  ten 
American  cities  from  which  the  time  allotment  tables  in  the 
former  part  of  the  chapter  are  taken.  Some  of  the  topics  over- 
lap, but  none  are  mentioned  separately  which  do  not  include 
ideas  not  expressed  in  any  other  one  topic  in  the  tables.  It  is 
not  the  function  or  the  purpose  of  this  present  treatment  to 
unite  or  to  show  a  possible  grouping  of  several  kindred  topics 
under  one  large  one,  but  to  describe  the  topics  just  as  they 
were  printed  by  the  superintendents  and  supervisors  for  the 
teacher's  guidance,  in  order  to  show  the  need  of  organization 
and  uniformity,  both  within  individual  courses  of  study  and 
among  the  systems  in  general. 

These  tables  (XIV.-XVIII.)  also  furnish  an  opportunity 
for  observing  the  grade  distribution  of  the  different  topics, 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.    45 

or  at  least  the  tendency  among  the  ten  cities  to  teach  certain 
topics  in  a  certain  grade.  There  is,  for  instance,  a  practical 
agreement  among  them  that  fractions  in  arithmetic  shall  be 
taught  in  or  near  the  fifth  grade,  while  percentage  ought  to 
receive  its  closest  study  near  the  seventh  grade.  The  frequent 
repetition  of  the  same  topic  in  several  grades  is  accounted  for 
by  the  very  elementary  character  of  the  introductory  work 
in  the  grades  of  its  first  appearance,  and  by  the  review  work 
in  upper  grades  where  it  is  scored.  The  time  allotted  any 
topic  may  be  approximated  by  reference  to  Table  XII.,  which 
contains  the  average  time  allotted  to  each  subject  in  each  grade 
of  the  ten  cities  from  which  these  topics  were  taken.  These 
tables,  combined  with  the  percentages  in  Table  XII.,  will  also 
show  in  a  general  way  the  relative  importance  attached  by 
these  ten  cities  to  the  topics  within  the  same  subject.  This 
is  done  by  correlating  the  frequency  of  the  occurrence  of  a 
topic  in  a  grade  (Tables  XIV.-XVIII.)  and  the  time  allotted 
the  subject  in  that  grade  in  which  most  of  the  cities  teach  it, 
as  shown  by  Table  XII.  For  instance,  the  largest  average 
time  allotment  to  geography  occurs  in  grades  IV.  and  V.,  as 
will  be  seen  by  reference  to  Table  XII.  The  topics  most 
taught  in  those  grades  are  North  America  and  the  United 
States.  This  ought  to  give  some  approximate  idea  as  to  the 
relative  importance  attached  in  the  study  of  geography  to 
these  two  topics. 

Again,  it  might  suggest  the  value  attached  to  a  topic  by 
the  cities  to  add  the  number  of  total  scores  which  a  topic 
received  in  all  grades.  This,  of  course,  would  not  apply  in 
case  a  topic  were  of  marked  difficulty  of  comprehension.  For 
instance,  upon  this  standard  of  values  it  might  be  assumed, 
with  a  large  degree  of  probability,  that  in  arithmetic  (see 
Table  XIV.)  the  first  nine  topics  are  regarded  as  of  more 
importance  to  the  student  than  the  other  twenty. 

The  figures  in  the  following  tables  (XIV.-XVIII.)  represent 


46     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

the  number  of  cities  in  which  the  given  topic  is  taught  in  the 
given  grade.  As  there  are  but  ten  cities  included  in  the 
scoring,  if  any  one  topic  receives  ten  scores  in  any  one  grade, 
it  indicates  a  unanimous  agreement  as  to  the  proper  grade 
in  which  that  topic  should  be  taught. 

ARITHMETIC.— The  following  explanations  and  implications 
with  reference  to  Tables  XIV.-XVIII.  may  assist  in  their 
interpretation.  It  is  well  known  to  all  who  have  been 
acquainted  with  the  teaching  of  arithmetic  that  certain  topics 
formerly  never  omitted  from  arithmetic,  are  dropped  from 
the  schools  today  without  hesitation. 

It  is  very  evident  that  the  theory  of  education  which  stands 
for  teaching  a  small  portion  of  a  subject  one  year,  and 
adding  little  by  little  to  it  during  each  succeeding  year,  has 
some  adherents  who  make  out  courses  of  study  for  certain 
large  American  cities.  With  due  regard  to  what  has  already 
been  said  in  reference  to  the  frequent  repetition  of  topics  in 
different  grades,  it  nevertheless  appears  that  poor  teaching  or 
lack  of  capacity  in  the  child  must  be  brought  forward  to 
explain  why  such  simple  topics  as  notation,  numeration  and 
addition  should  be  taught  for  five  successive  years. 

LANGUAGE. — When  difficult  topics,  such  as  inflection,  occur 
in  both  upper  and  lower  grades  in  Table  XV.,  it  is  understood 
that  the  work  in  lower  grades  is  very  elementary,  in  upper 
grades  more  technical. 

The  presence  in  this  outline  of  numerous  topics  in  a  grade, 
especially  above  the  fourth  grade,  indicates  lack  of  progress, 
inasmuch  as  the  topics  added  in  the  upper  grades  are  almost 
entirely  taken  from  grammar.  This  subject,  by  common 
acceptance,  should  not  monopolize  as  a  formal  study  the  time 
devoted  to  language,  in  a  progressive  elementary  school,  but 
should  be  used  only  incidentally  in  connection  with  composi- 
tion and  literature. 

In  several  schools  there  seems  to  be  an  attempt  to  employ 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     47 

TABLE  XIV. — Showing  the  Topics  in  Arithmetic  and  their  Distribu- 
tion by  Grades  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  Ten  Ameri- 
can Cities. 


Grade                                                     I.       II.     III. 

IV.      V.      VI.    VII.  VIII. 

Numeration 

10 

10 

10 

853 

1 

Notation 

10 

10 

10 

853 

1 

Relation  of  Numbers 

7 

4 

3 

1 

1 

Addition 

8 

B 

10 

8 

3          1 

Subtraction 

5 

9 

10 

8 

3          1 

Multiplication 

2 

7 

7 

841 

Division 

2 

5 

6 

863 

Fractions 

3 

4 

6 

8       10         9         3 

4 

Denominate  Numbers 

6    |      5 

4 

9         7       10         6 

6 

Involution  and  Evolution 

1322 

9 

Decimal   Fractions 

487 

3 

Mensuration 

1 

223 

t 

Multiplication    Tables 

4 

5 

411 

Commission  and  Brokerage 

5 

Insurance 

5 

1 

Percentage 

1         2 

5         7 

5 

Ratio  and  Proportion 

1         3 

5 

Partnership 

2 

4 

Partial   Payments 

2 

4 

Greatest    Common    Multiple    and 
Least   Common   Multiple 

2 

5 

Longitude  and   Time 

2 

2 

Profit  and  Loss 

1 

4 

1 

Taxes 

5 

Duties 

1 

Banking 

7 

1 

Exchange 

2 

2 

Simple  Interest 

1 

3 

7 

5 

Stocks  and  Bonds 

3 

1 

Business   Forms 

1 

3 

1 

1 

correlation  by  the  use  of  the  content  of  other  studies  as 
subject  matter  for  the  classes  in  English.  Wherever  this  is 
done  there  is  a  noticeable  absence  of  good  literature  in  the 
English  course. 

GEOGRAPHY. — Each  large  topic  like  North  America  in 
Table  XVI.  contains  an  average  of  twenty  sub-topics  in  the 
syllabi  examined. 

The  recurrence  of  the  same  topic  in  different  grades  is 
accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  the  pupils  study  the  topic  from 
the  two  points  of  view:  (1)  of  physical  geography,  (2)  of 
political  geography. 

"Globes  and  maps"  includes  map-drawing. 


48    PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  XV. — Showing  the  Topics  in  Language  and  their  Distribu- 
tion by  Grades  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  Ten  Cities 
of  the  United  States. 


Grade 


I.       II.     III.     IV.      V.      VI.    VII.  VIII. 


COMPOSITION 


Conversatiou  and  Oral  Reproduc- 
tion 

9 

8 

6 

6 

6 

6 

3 

2 

The  Paragraph 

1 

1 

1 

1 

2 

5 

I 

The  Sentence 

1 

3 

4 

3 

2 

3 

1 

Written   Reproduction 

5 

6 

0 

9 

7 

7 

3 

5 

Model   Composition 

1 

1 

4 

5 

3 

B 

8 

6 

Invention 

1 

i 

Topical  Outline 

1 

2 

4 

2 

Description 

'2 

4 

4 

3 

3 

5 

5 

2 

Narration 

1 

2 

1 

1 

2 

4 

3 

Exposition 

1 

1 

Letter  Writing 

0 

4 

2 

8 

3 

2 

Dictation 

I 

4 

5 

3 

4 

4 

* 

3 

Copying 

2 

1 

Summaries 

1 

1 

3 

Rhetoric  from   Literature 

Rhetoric  from  Texts 

2 

GRAMMAR 

Simple   Sentence 

1 

6 

Compound  Sentence 

6 

Complex    Sentence 

6 

Capital   Letters,  Punctuation 

| 

7 

7 

6 

4 

2 

2 

2 

Classification  of  Sentences 

1 

3 

2 

4 

4 

Inflection  and  Use  Part  Speech 

1 

1 

5 

7 

9 

10 

e 

Phrases 

2 

3 

4 

3 

Clauses 

2 

2 

3 

3 

Words 

3 

2 

5 

3 

Analysis 

4 

6 

7 

8 

Synthesis 

2 

4 

Correct  Expression 

1 

1 

2 

3 

1 

1 

2 

2 

LITERATURE 


Literature 

7    |      7 

7 

7 

6    |      6 

6   |      U 

Memorizing  Gems 

3   |     5 

5 

5 

3 

3 

2 

3 

Stories 

8   |     6 

4 

1 

2 

1 

2 

In  only  one  of  these  syllabi  is  the  memorizing  of  State  capi- 
tals noticed. 

Most  of  the  programs  follow  the  topics  as  they  occur  in  the 
text-books  on  geography. 

HISTORY. — The  number  of  assignments  made  to  different 
wars  in  contrast  to  the  number  made  to  topics  dealing  with 
movements  of  social  and  economic  interest,  is  one  of  the  pecul- 
iarities shown  by  Table  XVII. 

It  is  suggestive  that  the  avenue  through  which  history  seems 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     49 


TABLE  XVI. — Showing  the  Topics  in  Geography  and  their  Distribu- 
tion by  Grades  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  Ten  Ameri- 
can Cities. 


Grade 


I.       II.     III.     IV.      V.      VI.    VII.  VIII. 


Home   Geography 

1 

2 

3 

5 

Directions 

3 

4 

1 

4 

2 

Distance 

1 

'6 

The   Earth 

1 

3 

1 

2 

Surface 

1 

1 

5 

2 

Land 

1 

5 

1 

4 

Water 

1 

5 

1 

4 

Revolution  of  Earth 

5 

3 

3 

1 

Rotation  of  Earth 

0 

3 

3 

1 

Zones 

4 

4 

3 

Plants 

1 

2 

1 

3 

1 

1 

Animals 

1 

3 

1 

4 

1 

1 

Products 

1 

9 

1 

1 

Minerals 

1 

2 

1 

Occupations 

2 

5 

3 

Governments    and    Religions 

1 

1 

Races  of  Men 

1 

1 

6 

1 

5 

1 

1 

Hemispheres 

4 

2 

1 

Continents 

5 

2 

2 

Oceans 

5 

2 

2 

North  America 

5 

7 

6 

2 

United  States 

5 

4 

5 

1 

New  England  States 

4 

2 

4 

Middle  Atlantic  States 

3 

2 

4 

Southern    States 

4 

2 

4 

Central   States 

3 

2 

4 

Rocky   Mountain  &  Pacific   States 

4 

2 

4 

Review    of    United    States 

1 

Canada 

9 

3 

1 

3 

Mexico 

2 

3 

1 

3 

Review   of   North    America 

1 

1 

South  America 

1 

3 

6 

5 

5 

1 

Europe 

1 

1 

B 

B 

1 

Asia 

1 

1 

5 

6 

6 

1 

Africa 

1 

1 

4 

5 

7 

1 

Australasia 

1 

1 

3 

5 

7 

1 

Latitude  &  Longitude 

4 

3 

2 

to  be  finding  its  way  into  the  grades  below  the  sixth  is  the  his- 
torical and  biographical  narrative.  This,  we  think,  is  psycho- 
logically sound,  for  the  child  is  interested  primarily  in  people. 
The  performances  of  heroes  and  the  activities  of  his  own  ac- 
quaintances are  the  two  aspects  of  child  experience  which  lend 
themselves  most  directly  to  the  beginning  of  the  study  of  his- 
tory. Therefore  the  first  two  topics  in  Table  XVII.  commend 
themselves  as  a  departure  in  the  right  direction. 


50     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  XVII. — Showing  the  Topics  in  History  and  their  Distribu- 
tion by  Grades  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  Ten  Cities 
of  the  United  States. 


Grade                                 I.        II.       III.      IV.       V.      VI.     VII.    VIII. 

American     Historical     &    Bio- 
graphical Narratives 

2 

3 

4 

7 

7 

5 

1 

2 

Local   History 

2 

1 

1 

3 

2 

2 

Discoveries 

1 

4 

I 

3 

4 

1 

Explorations 

1 

'2 

'2 

3 

'2 

Settlements 

1 

I 

3 

4 

3 

Colonies 

1 

'2 

3 

4 

1 

Colonial  Government 

1 

1 

2 

1 

Revolution 

1 

3 

'2 

4 

5 

1 

Articles  of  Confederation 

"2 

4 

2 

Constitution 

1 

1 

4 

5 

Amendments   to   Constitution 

2 

5 

French    &    Indian    War 

'2 

3 

0 

2 

War  of  1812 

1 

'2 

2 

« 

Mexican  War 

'2 

2 

5 

Civil    War 

1 

4 

'2 

7 

Spanish-American  War 

3 

1 

7 

Territorial  Expansion 

3 

1 

5 

Inventions    &    Discoveries 

1 

1 

4 

2 

5 

Riseof    Republican  Government 

1 

1 

4 

4 

—T~ 

Economic  Progress 

1 

r 

Slavery 

4 

2 

1 

Presidential    Administration 

3 

2 

Review     of     United     States 
History 

1 

4 

War  of  Tripoli 

1 

1 

1 

Era  of  Good  Feeling 

1 

1 

3 

Monroe    Doctrine 

1 

1 

2 

Missouri  Compromise 

1 

1 

3 

Nullification 

1 

1 

3 

Panic  of  1837 

1 

1 

3 

Analysis     of     National     Gov- 
ernment 

1 

2 

1 

Political  Parties 

1 

Analysis  of  State  Government 

1 

2 

City   Government 

1 

2 

3 

State  History 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Ethical  Lessons 

1 

1 

1 

English  History 

2 

2 

Next  to  nature  study,  perhaps  no  study  in  the  syllabi  ex- 
amined shows  greater  lack  of  organization  than  does  elemen- 
tary history. 

NATURE  STUDY. — One  of  the  most  eminent  teachers  of 
nature  study,  in  a  recent  address  on  the  subject,  said  that 
nature  study  is  not  a  science.  An  examination  of  the  syllabi 
on  that  subject  calls  forth  a  ready  concurrence  with  that 


TABLE  XVIII. — Showing  the  Topics  in  Nature  Study  and  their  Distri- 
bution by  Grades  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  in  Ten  Cities 
of  the  United  States. 


Grade 


I. 


II.       III.      IV.       V.      VI.     VII.    Vlll. 


Seeds 

2 

2 

2 

4 

1 

1 

2 

1 

Germination  of   Seeds 

2 

2 

1 

1 

2 

1 

1 

1 

Plants 

4 

4 

0 

8 

5 

5 

3 

3 

Plant  Awakening 

1 

1 

1 

2 

2 

1 

1 

2 

Buds 

1 

1 

1 

1 

2 

Boots 

1 

2 

1 

Leaves 

3 

4 

4 

1 

3 

3 

1 

2 

flowers 

2 

3 

3 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

Trees 

4 

3 

3 

B 

5 

4 

3 

3 

Sap 

1 

Nuts 

1 

1 

2 

1 

Fruits 

5 

2 

3 

5 

3 

5 

2 

1 

Grain 

1 

2 

Steins 

1 

Effects  of  Freezing  on  Plants 

1 

1 

1 

1 

2 

1 

1 

1 

Foods 

2 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Caterpillars 

1 

1 

Cocoons 

1 

1 

Worms 

1 

Spiders 

1 

1 

Snails 

1 

Fish 

1 

1 

Tadpole 

1 

Birds 

4 

3 

3 

3 

2 

2 

2 

2 

Homes    and    Coverings 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

2 

1 

1 

Animals 

4 

6 

5 

3 

2 

5 

2 

2 

Skeletons 

1 

Forms  of  Water 

2 

1 

1 

Wells  and  Springs 

1 

1 

1 

Streams 

1 

2 

1 

Soil 

1 

2 

1 

i 

Erosion 

1 

2 

i 

Effect  of  Freezing  on   Soil 

'    2 

i 

i 

Hills  &  Valleys 

2 

Rocks 

1 

1 

1 

2 

Rock    Formations 

1 

1 

1 

Corals 

1 

1 

1 

Fossils 

2 

1 

Minerals 

1 

3 

1 

2 

1 

1 

Metals 

1 

Earth    Study 

1 

1 

Phenomena   of   Nature 

2 

1 

2 

1 

2 

2 

Weather 

•A 

2 

a 

4 

4 

3 

2 

4 

Wind 

1 

1 

Heat 

1 

1 

t 

1 

Frictional   Electricity 

1 

1 

Light 

1 

1 

1 

Lenses 

1 

1 

Air  &  Liquids 

1 

1 

2 

Lever 

1 

1 

Property  of  Matter 

1 

1 

Common   Facts    in   Physics 

2 

3 

3 

52     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

opinion,  if  organization  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  a 
science.  Table  XVIII.  is  corroborative  evidence  of  such  an 
opinion.  There  is  no  subject  taught  in  the  American  schools 
which  so  greatly  needs  unification.  As  it  is  now  taught,  the 
subject  may  include  any  topic  in  the  entire  natural  universe. 
We  shall  have  to  remember  soon  that  when  Comenius  once 
attempted  universal  knowledge  as  an  aim  of  education  he 
failed  for  want  of  a  capable  student. 

After  studying  Table  XVIII.  carefully,  one  would  guess 
that  when  the  basis  for  systematizing  this  most  incoherent 
study  is  found  it  will  lie  more  in  the  vicinity  of  a  simplified 
observational  botany  and  zoology  than  in  the  geological, 
physical  and  chemical  aspects  of  the  study  as  it  is  now 
taught. 

5.     The  Historical  Development  of  the  Course  of  Study  of 
Five  Cities,  Showing  the  Direction-  of  Growth  since  1868. 

In  order  to  corroborate  or  refute  certain  conclusions  reached 
in  the  study  of  previous  tables  regarding  the  relative  impor- 
tance of  subjects,  and  to  discover  the  direction  in  which  the 
enrichment  of  the  elementary  curriculum  has  tended  in  recent 
years,  a  brief  historical  study  has  been  made  of  five  American 
city  schools.  This  has  been  done  in  the  hope  of  taking  one 
step  more  toward  a  discovery  of  the  ideal  American  course  of 
study.  While  merely  a  type  study,  it  ought  to  possess  some 
value  in  proportion  as  the  cities  are  representative  American 
cities. 

Tables  XIX.-XXIII.  show  the  elementary  school  curriculum 
in  New  York,  Boston,  Chicago,  Louisville  and  St.  Louis  for  the 
years  1868,  1888  and  1904.  The  subjects  taught  and  the 
grades  in  which  they  are  taught  in  the  three  respective  years 
are  given.  In  1888  and  1904  the  tables  show  the  minutes  per 
week  in  each  subject  and  in  each  grade,  and  also  the  percent- 
age of  total  time  occupied  by  each  branch  of  instruction. 


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«    3 

TABLE  XXI.  —  Showing  the  Curriculum  of  the  Public  Eleme 
1904;  also  showing  Percentage  of  Total  Time  deA 

1868  1888 

O 

s 

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X 

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M 

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br 

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0  Language 

7  Composition 

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>, 

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0 
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13  Elementary 
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S08 

10 

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SH 

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rH 

17  Drawing 

M 
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c 

2 

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19  Manual 
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U3  German 
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Total 

E 

M 

35 

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a 

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s 

35 

ri 
ro 

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CO 

ta 

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30 

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8 

rH 
t— 

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35 
rH 

35 

30 

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X) 

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35 

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56 

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30 

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35 

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0 

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2 
5 

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0 

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N 

n 

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1 

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rH 

2 

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0 



g 

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rH 

0 
rH 

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1 

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rH 

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rH 

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2 

0 

lH 

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2 

rH 

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5 

1 

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:i 

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0 

rH 

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8 

rH 

> 

X 

X 

X 

H 

H 

M 

H 

H 

D 

X 

X 

H 

X 

M 

M 

H 

5 

X 

X 

X 

H 

X 

X 

M 

X 

•* 

X 

X 

X 

H 

X 

M 

M 

X 

CO 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

M 

X 

N 

X 

X 

X 

M 

X 

rH 

X 

Declama- 
tion 

X 

H 

X 

Grade 
1  Opening 
Exercises 

Morals  & 
Manners 

U  Reading 

3  Writing 

4  Spelling 

5  Grammar 

0  Language 

8  Arithmetic 

it  Geography 

10  History 

C 

rH 
rH 

13  Elementary 
Science 

0)  X 

P 

rH 

10  Physical 
Training 

17  Drawing 

18  Singing 

2.'<  German 
Total 

^        05 

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p 

1- 

X 

n 

in 

M 

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Si 

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t- 

t-; 

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PM 

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0 

M 

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C 
rH 

10 

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rH 

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CO 

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in 

00 

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IO 
t- 

5 

Q 

ro 

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IO 
M 

o 

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rH 

in 

rH 

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o 

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CO 

c 

10 

ro 

rH 

IO 

so     M 

10 

ro 

M 

0 

10 

0 

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0 

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t- 

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n     ^ 

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ri 

0 

10 

5 

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0 

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r- 

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c 

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m 

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0 

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10 

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rH 

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5 

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0 
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0 

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rH 

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55 

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10 

t- 

fi 

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B 

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1-H 

0 

rH 

0 

fi 

3 

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30 
rH 

0 
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rH 

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0 

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0 
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rH 

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rH 

JC 



o 

00 
rH 

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30 
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30 
rH 

O 
rH 

X~ 



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IO- 

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fi 

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t- 

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t- 

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0 

rH 

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o 
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0 

p 

rH 

^ 
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X 

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o" 
ro 

i-t 

o 
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X 

X 

X 

X 

t~ 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

CO 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

10 

X 

- 

X 

X 

X 



X 

- 

X 

x" 



•* 

X 

X 

X 

X 

n 

X 

tt. 

s 

5  Grammar  | 

ii, 

ti 

a 

03 

• 

ll 
O*' 

X 

x~ 

I     0 

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00 

MQ. 

1= 

35 

X 

14  Nature 
Study 

X 

X 

X 

Grade  |1|2 
1  Opening 
Exercises 

bt 

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rt 

1, 

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C 
• 

^H 

x~ 

01 

a 

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0)   W 

•^tJ 

M 

X 

X 
X 

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4  Spelling  |x 

15  Physiol- 
ogy & 

Hygiene  \ 

X 

It)  Physical 
Training 

17  Drawing 

0 

X 
rH 

Punctua- 
tion 
Total 

58     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

In  presenting  the  points  of  interest  in  Tables  XIX.-XXIIL, 
it  has  been  thought  well  to  restrict  the  discussion  to  those 
branches  of  instruction  which  best  show  the  direction  of  the 
enrichment  of  the  curriculum  in  the  last  thirty  years. 

By  comparing  the  foregoing  tables  this  trend  of  develop- 
ment may  be  quite  clearly  seen.  It  is  observable  in  two  ways : 
first,  by  study  of  the  subjects  and  topics  which  are  introduced 
from  time  to  time;  and  second,  by  study  of  the  decrease  and 
increase  of  time  allotted  to  those  subjects  which  have  been  in 
the  course  of  study  from  the  beginning. 

ENGLISH. — Grammar  is  the  only  subject  in  any  of  the  pro- 
grams in  1868  to  cover  the  various  topics  which  we  now  in- 
clude under  the  term  English.  Language  lessons  were  added 
to  this  topic  by  1888.  Just  what  the  term  meant  is  not  clear, 
but  it  evidently  meant  something  other  than  formal  grammar. 
The  evidence  shows  that  it  included  composition,  but  not 
nearly  so  much  literature  as  is  included  under  the  concept 
language  lessons,  in  1904  There  was  absolutely  nothing  in 
the  curricula  of  1868  to  resemble  the  subject  literature.  Liter- 
ature in  the  elementary  grades  is  comparatively  recent,  cer- 
tainly it  does  not  occur  much  earlier  than  1888. 

DRAWING. — Drawing  is  one  of  the  subjects  added  in  1888 
by  four  of  the  five  cities.  It  appeared  on  the  program  of  the 
schools  of  Boston  in  1868  in  the  four  upper  grades  and  was 
added  in  the  lower  grades  in  1888.  Of  the  five  cities, 
therefore,  Boston  alone  had  drawing  in  1866,  and  that  only 
in  four  grades. 

ELEMENTARY  SCIENCE  AND  NATURE  STUDY. — All  of  these 
cities  except  St.  Louis  had  on  their  programs  in  1868  a  subject 
called  object  lessons,  which  was  the  forerunner  of  elementary 
science  and  nature  study,  but  certainly  was  not  exactly 
either  at  that  time.  It  was  displaced  by  the  topic  elementary 
science  in  1888,  except  in  New  York,  where  it  was  dropped  and 
no  science  substituted. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.    59 

The  term  nature  study  is  more  modern  but  includes  prac- 
tically the  same  subject  matter  as  elementary  science.  It  is 
not  in  any  of  the  1888  programs,  but  appears,  connected 
usually  with  elementary  science,  upon  all  the  five  in  1904. 
The  subject  physiology  and  hygiene  was  added  in  1904  in  three 
of  the  cities.  Boston  had  already  added  it  in  1888.  St.  Louis 
seems  not  to  have  added  it  yet. 

MANUAL  TRAINING. — Manual  training  is  found  on  no  pro- 
gram in  1888.  It  is  the  one  distinctively  modern  subject.  All 
of  the  five  cities  except  Louisville  teach  it  in  1904.  New  York 
has  gone  farther  perhaps  than  any  other  American  city  in 
this  line  of  work.  When  drawing  and  constructive  work  are 
included  in  the  subject,  about  15  per  cent  of  that  city 's  recita- 
tion time  is  at  present  devoted  to  manual  training. 

Civics. — There  is  a  clearly  marked  tendency  either  to  make 
a  separate  subject  of  civics,  or  to  add  extra  time  to  history  and 
teach  it  as  part  of  that  subject,  which  amounts  to  the  same 
thing. 

The  above  five  topics  represent  the  newly  introduced  sub- 
jects and  show  the  direction  in  which  the  curriculum  is 
growing. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  while  these  additions  were 
made,  there  have  been  practically  no  omissions  during  the  past 
thirty-six  years.  Those  topics  occurring  in  1868  were  in- 
cluded in  the  larger  subjects  introduced  in  later  years.  Even 
"morals  and  manners"  is  provided  for  and  specifically  men- 
tioned in  1904  under  the  new  topic  "opening  exercises." 

6.    Time  Allotment. 

The  direction  of  growth  in  the  curriculum  during  the  last 
thirty-six  years  may  be  seen  not  only  in  the  addition  of  sub- 
jects but  by  a  eomparison  of  the  time  allotted  to  the  several 
subjects  in  each  grade  upon  the  basis  of  a  week's  work. 

Except  St.  Louis  (whose  decrease  of  total  recitation  time 


60     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

in  the  eight  grades  per  week  from  11,680  in  1888  to  7,370  in 
1904  is  unaccountable)  all  the  cities  show  a  total  increase  of 
time  spent  in  recitations  per  week  in  all  the  grades  together, 
which  ranges  from  two  thousand  to  four  thousand  minutes. 
That  is,  the  increase  of  recitation  time  is  about  thirty  or  sixty 
minutes  a  day  in  each  grade. 

But  the  interesting  comparison  is  that  of  the  increase  or 
decrease  of  percentages  of  time  assigned  to  different  subjects. 
Manifestly,  the  subjects  regarded  as  most  important  receive 
a  greater  percentage  of  increase  of  the  total  recitation  time  per 
week.  The  tendency  toward  emphasis  on  specific  subjects  may 
not  be  noticed  so  readily  from  the  increase  or  decrease  of 
minutes  of  weekly  recitation  time  as  it  will  be  discovered 
from  the  study  of  the  relative  percentage  of  increase  or  de- 
crease of  recitation  time.  This  is  illustrated  forcibly  in  the 
case  of  the  subjects  studied  in  detail  below.  The  total  weekly 
recitation  time  per  grade  from  1888  to  1904  was  increased, 
which  means  that  the  recitation  time  of  each  subject  was 
increased,  and  yet  the  subjects  below  usually  lost  in  per- 
centage of  recitation  time.  That  is,  they  received  less  than 
their  proportion  of  the  general  increase  of  recitation  time. 
For  the  purpose  of  showing  the  increase  or  decrease  of  im- 
portance attached  to  subjects  during  recent  years,  the  relative 
percentages  have  been  tabulated  in  the  last  column  to  the 
right  in  the  tables  for  1888  and  1904.  These  are  derived  by 
dividing  the  total  time  spent  in  all  the  grades  in  teaching  a 
given  subject  by  the  total  time  spent  in  all  the  grades  in 
teaching  all  the  subjects. 

ARITHMETIC  has  lost  time  in  three  of  the  curricula  and 
gained  in  two.  In  Louisville  it  gained  only  one  per  cent  in  the 
thirty-six  years,  while  in  New  York  it  lost  nearly  sixteen  per 
cent,  i.  e.,  its  relative  per  cent  in  1888  was  26.2,  and  in  1904 
10.2  per  cent.  But  even  in  1904  in  all  the  curricula  it  received 
a  proportion  of  time  second  only  to  reading.  The  extremes 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     61 

in  the  change  of  time  assigned  arithmetic  are  in  New  York 
and  Chicago,  the  former  decreasing  its  relative  time  16  per 
per  cent,  and  the  latter  increasing  it  9  per  cent. 

SPELLING,  READING  AND  ENGLISH. — These  subjects  have 
lost  in  the  sixteen  years  from  1888  to  1904  in  probably  every 
case,  with  the  exception  of  reading  in  Louisville.  If  one 
includes  under  the  one  branch  of  instruction  English,  all  the 
subjects,  reading,  writing,  grammar,  language  lessons,  com- 
position and  spelling,  there  is  no  exception  to  the  loss  of  time, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  there  has  been  an  admitted  in- 
crease of  time  in  literature  and  language  lessons.  The  loss 
is  mainly  in  spelling,  reading  and  formal  grammar. 

GEOGRAPHY  AND  HISTORY. — Both  these  subjects,  though 
occupying  a  minor  amount  of  time  in  comparison  with  the 
subjects  just  discussed,  have  yet  gained  in  time.  The  gain 
averages  approximately  3  per  cent  for  the  two  subjects  taken 
together.  Geography  gains  more  than  history.  The  latter 
subject  is  still  taught  in  the  upper  grammar  grades,  its  advo- 
cates seeming  to  fear  to  allow  it  to  stray  very  far  from  the 
high  school. 

So  much  for  the  curriculum  of  the  public  elementary  schools 
at  the  present  time  in  five  of  the  larger  American  cities. 
Prophecy  is  beyond  the  bounds  of  this  paper,  but  it  would  be 
interesting  to  know  whether  other  cities  will  follow  the  radical 
departure  just  entered  upon  by  New  York  City.  In  this  city 
as  in  no  other  city  of  the  United  States,  subjects  other  than 
the  "three  R's"  have  received  much  attention  in  the  curricu- 
lum. Reading,  writing,  spelling,  grammar,  language  lessons, 
composition,  arithmetic,  geography  and  history  receive  barely 
60  per  cent  of  the  allotted  time.  In  other  words,  those  sub- 
jects which  were  given  practically  all  the  time  only  a  few 
years  ago,  and  which  even  in  New  York  were  given  90  per 
cent  of  the  time,  have  suddenly  been  cut  down  to  a  little 
over  half  of  the  time.  The  superintendents  of  several  of  the 


62     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

larger  cities  are  reorganizing  their  courses  of  study  at  present. 
Among  others,  Boston,  San  Francisco  and  Chicago  are  making 
changes.  Will  the  New  York  curriculum  in  its  extreme  move- 
ment towards  what  are  known  as  the  content  studies  be  fol- 
lowed by  these  superintendents,  or  will  New  York  under  force 
of  popular  conservative  opinion  be  forced  to  retreat  from  its 
present  curriculum  ?  Whatever  is  agreed  upon  for  the  larger 
cities  of  the  United  States  will  be  followed  by  the  rest  of  the 
progressive  city  school  systems,  many  of  which  will  advance 
just  a  step  farther  in  the  development  than  the  point  around 
which  the  large  cities  settle  down.  For  after  all,  the  large 
cities  set  the  ideals,  but  the  smaller  towns  suburban  to  these 
cities  more  nearly  attain  the  ideal,  owing  to  the  absence  of 
the  complex  system  by  which  the  larger  cities  are  hampered. 
The  smaller  cities  of  America  are  greatly  influenced  in  the 
matter  of  admission  of  subjects  into  the  curriculum  by  the 
practice  in  the  larger  cities.  For  this  reason,  considerable 
importance  ought  to  be  attached  to  the  tendencies  in  the 
development  of  the  curricula  of  such  cities  as  the  five  reviewed, 
as  well  as  to  the  curricula  of  the  ten  whose  time  allotments 
have  been  discussed  in  previous  pages. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    CURRICULUM    OF    PUBLIC    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS    IN    CITIES 

OF  ENGLAND. 

1.    Administration  Relating  to  the  Elementary  Curriculum. 

According  to  the  English  Education  Act  of  December, 
1902,*  which  went  into  effect  March,  1903,  the  Councils  of 
every  county  and  of  every  county  borough  became  the  au- 
thorities for  the  public  elementary  schools  of  England.  In 
boroughs  of  ten  thousand  people,  and  in  municipalities  of  over 
twenty  thousand,  their  respective  Councils  became  the  local 
education  authority  for  elementary  schools.  These  several 
sets  of  Councils  manage  the  schools  through  a  Board  of  Mana- 
gers appointed  for  each  school.  In  the  case  of  Council  schools 
(entirely  public  schools),  they  appoint  four  of  the  six  Mana- 
gers. In  the  case  of  Voluntary  schools  (partly  Church  and 
partly  public  schools),  the  Councils  appoint  only  one  of  the 
six  Managers,  the  Church  appointing  four  and  the  vicinity 
one. 

These  special  Managers  under  the  new  law  exercise  the 
larger  control  over  the  public  elementary  schools  of  England. 
They  either  choose  the  course  of  study  or  delegate  this  choice 
to  the  head  master.  In  a  town  with  many  schools  the  Board  of 
Managers  of  each  school  has  power  to  decide  all  matters  rela- 
tive to  the  curriculum  of  that  school.  Consequently,  every 
school  in  a  city  system  may  have  a  different  course  of  study. 
In  fact  this  is  largely  true  with  respect  to  the  time  assignments 
*Code  of  1903,  National  Union  of  Teachers'  edition,  pp.  207-231. 

63 


64    PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

made  to  the  different  subjects,  although  with  reference  to  the 
subjects  taught  there  is  a  close  uniformity  throughout  all 
England,  for  reasons  soon  to  be  explained. 

Let  it  not  be  forgotten,  however,  in  the  study  of  the  Eng- 
lish elementary  school  curriculum,  that  the  school  is  the  unit. 
In  no  school  system  of  the  four  modern  progressive  types 
included  in  this  study,  are  there  such  extremely  individualistic 
tendencies  to  be  found.  In  the  English  schools  the  individual 
is  everything,  whereas  in  Germany  and  Prance  he  is  nothing 
in  contrast  with  the  needs  of  the  State.  The  individual  is 
reached  through  the  agency  of  the  school  under  the  present 
English  law.  The  individual  environment  has  quite  as  large  a 
place  in  the  school  as  the  individual  child.  The  gentlemen 
who  furnished  the  seventy-eight  syllabi  of  the  different  schools 
for  this  study,  analyzed  the  environments  from  which  the 
children  came,  and  endeavored  to  show  the  influence  these 
environments  have  upon  the  content  and  emphasis  in  the  cur- 
riculum. The  following  study  will  reveal  the  fact  that  the 
adaptation  to  environment  is  far  better  provided  for  in  the 
English  elementary  schools  than  in  the  schools  of  the  other 
countries  under  discussion. 

Individualism  of  some  kind  has  been  the  ideal  since  the 
establishment  of  the  English  elementary  system  in  1870. 
In  1873,  I.  Todhunter  in  his  "Conflict  of  Studies"  (p.  3), 
after  discussing  the  different  possible  aims  of  education  in 
his  country,  said :  "Possibly,  however,  the  end  which  is  usually 
sought  is  the  good  of  the  individual  rather  than  the  State." 
The  prevalence  of  this  conception  has  seriously  militated 
against  the  perfection,  even  against  the  possibility,  of  a  system 
of  elementary  schools.  There  is  a  tendency  in  recent  years 
towards  uniformity  and  away  from  individualism,  but  it  has 
not  yet  revolutionized  the  curriculum.  This,  then,  is  a  veri- 
table antithesis  to  the  French  bureaucratic  system.  A  recent 
English  writer  has  expressed  it  very  well  in  saying:  "France 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     65 

protests  against  the  tyranny  of  the  State,  while  England  asks 
for  more  help  from  the  State. ' ' 

Let  us  next  examine  the  aid  given  by  the  central  authority, 
and  see  how  it  secures  its  control  in  virtue  of  said  aid.  The 
Board  of  Education  in  England  has  charge  of  the  State's 
interests  in  education.  It  purchases  this  control  by  subsidiz- 
ing the  schools  from  the  State  exchequer.  It  does  not  assume 
in  a  high-handed  way,  without  consent  of  the  people,  the 
authority  to  interfere  in  public  education.  But  it  subsidizes 
those  schools  which  agree  to  teach  what  it  considers  certain 
essential  subjects  in  certain  essential  ways,  and  it  refuses  to 
grant  aid  to  those  which  do  not  acquiesce  in  its  requests.  The 
individual  Board  of  Managers  may  still  teach  what  it  pleases, 
but  it  forfeits  the  grant  from  the  State  treasury  by  so  doing, 
unless  its  pleasure  coincides  with  that  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation. 

So  the  Board  of  Education  exercises  an  inhibitive  authority 
over  the  elementary  curriculum.  This  it  does,  just  as  is  done 
in  France,  by  naming  a  minimum  curriculum  with  certain 
elective  studies  which  must  be  taught  in  a  manner  satisfactory 
to  His  Majesty's  Inspector,  sent  out  by  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion to  examine  and  report  upon  every  school.  The  public 
Infant  School  (containing  pupils  from  three  to  seven  years 
of  age)  which  satisfies  H.  M.  Inspector  passably  well  will 
receive  from  the  State  treasury  sixteen  shillings  per  pupil. 
The  Infant  School  which  pleases  him  very  well  will  receive 
seventeen  shillings.  The  public  Elementary  School  will  re- 
ceive twenty-one  shillings  when  it  is  fairly  satisfactory  and 
twenty-two  shillings  when  it  is  very  satisfactory  to  the  Inspec- 
tor. This  grant  in  1900  paid  38.4  per  cent  of  all  money  spent 
on  elementary  education.* 

In  order  to  satisfy  the  Inspector,  there  must  be  four  hundred 

•"The  Making  of  Citizens, — a  Study  In  Comparative  Education,"  B.  W. 
Hughes,  p.  130. 


66    PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

school  sessions  a  year,  i.  e.,  (counting  morning  and  afternoon 
each  a  session)  two  hundred  school  days.  In  the  Infant 
Schools  these  sessions  must  not  continue  for  a  shorter  time 
than  one  and  one-half  hours  each,  and  in  the  Elementary 
School  not  less  than  two  hours  in  the  afternoon  and  two  in  the 
morning.  Later  we  shall  see  that  the  average  is  never  less 
than  five  hours  per  day,  frequently  six. 

One  other  condition  which  the  Inspector  exacts  of  the  local 
authorities  is  that  they  shall  see  to  it  that  every  child  between 
the  ages  of  five  and  fourteen  shall  attend  the  public  or  some 
other  good  elementary  school,  unless  excused  at  the  age  of 
twelve  by  passing  an  examination  of  proficiency,  or  at  the 
age  of  thirteen  by  virtue  of  having  been  present  for  five 
successive  years  at  three  hundred  and  fifty  annual  sessions. 

Furthermore,  the  time-table  of  studies  must  be  posted  in 
each  school  room,  and  approved  and  signed  by  the  Inspector 
on  behalf  of  the  Board.  Before  the  Inspector  is  allowed  to 
sign  this  time-table  it  must  provide  for  the  teaching,  by  an 
approved  teacher,  of  the  following  subjects: 

In  Infant  Schools  (age  three  to  seven) : 

1.  The  elements  of  reading, 

2.  The  elements  of  writing, 

3.  The  elements  of  arithmetic, 

4.  Needlework  (for  girls), 

5.  Drawing  (for  boys), 

6.  Appropriate  and  varied  occupations, 

7.  Simple  lessons  in  common  things  (akin  to  nature 

study), 

8.  Singing, 

9.  Simple  physical  exercises. 

In  schools  for  older  children  (age  seven  to  fourteen),  the 
subjects  as  a  rule  required  of  all  children  are : 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     67 

1.  English,  by  which  is  understood 

(a)  Reading, 

(b)  Recitation,  i.  e.  memorizing  gems  of  litera- 

ture, 

(c)  Writing, 

(d)  Composition, 

(e)  Grammar  (so  far  as  it  bears  upon  the  cor- 

rect use  of  language), 

2.  Arithmetic, 

3.  Geography, 

4.  History, 

5.  Common  things  (akin  to  nature  study  and  elemen- 

tary science), 

7.  Physical  training, 

8.  Drawing  (for  boys), 

9.  Needlework  (for  girls).* 

Besides  the  foregoing  list  of  studies,  which  are  required 
only  in  the  sense  that  the  parliamentary  grant  to  the  amount 
of  five  or  six  dollars  per  pupil  is  given  for  teaching  them, 
there  is  a  second  list  of  electives  prescribed  by  the  central 
authority  "one  or  more  of  which  is  to  be  taken  when  the 
circumstances  of  the  school  in  the  opinion  of  the  Inspector, 
make  it  desirable. ' '  These  are :  algebra,  Euclid,  mensuration, 
mechanics,  chemistry,  physics,  elementary  physics  and  chem- 
istry, animal  physiology,  hygiene,  botany,  principles  of  agri- 
culture, horticulture,  navigation,  Latin,  French,  Welsh  (for 
scholars  in  schools  of  Wales),  German,  book-keeping,  short- 
hand, domestic  economy  or  domestic  science,  drawing  (for 
girls),  and  needlework  (for  boys).  Of  course  there  is  no 
extra  subsidizing  from  the  treasury  for  the  one  study  selected 
from  this  list. 

A  list  of  motor  active  studies  is  furnished,  however,  for  the 

*In  future  discussions  this  list  of  nine  subjects  Is  referred   to  as  the 
"required"  studies,  with  the  idea  that  It  is  required  for  the  State  grant. 


68     PUBLIC  ELEMENTAKY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

teaching  of  each  of  which  an  extra  grant  is  allowed.  The 
studies  of  this  nature  offered  to  girls  are:  cookery,  laundry 
work,  household  management;  those  offered  to  boys,  cottage 
gardening,  and  manual  instruction,  also  cookery  for  boys  in 
seaport  towns.* 

Before  further  inquiry  respecting  the  English  elementary 
curriculum  is  possible,  the  question  must  be  answered  whether 
the  course  of  study  from  an  administrative  point  of  view  is 
compulsory  and  fixed  for  all  England,  or  whether  it  is  largely 
optional  and  adaptable  to  the  needs  of  various  environ- 
ments. At  first  glance,  it  would  seem  to  be  just  as  binding 
upon  the  different  school  Managers  to  adopt  the  Board's  pre- 
scribed course,  with  emphasis  upon  such  divisions  as  the  Board 
indicates,  as  is  the  requirement  of  the  local  authority  in 
France  or  Germany,  where  a  somewhat  despotic  control  seems 
to  operate.  The  power  of  the  Inspector  through  the  Board  of 
Education  over  the  national  exchequer  is  so  great  that  for 
all  practical  purposes  the  course  of  study  prescribed  to  him 
by  the  Board,  and  through  him  prescribed  for  the  school,  is 
compulsory.  For  every  one  knows  that  rarely  will  a  Board 
of  Managers  throw  away  the  State  grant  by  refusing  to  teach 
the  course  of  study  prescribed  by  the  State. 

It  is  true  the  terminology  has  been  so  changed  during 
recent  years  that  the  law  does  not  specifically  say  that  the 
first  division  of  studies  shall  be  taught  in  every  school.  And 
this  seems  to  be  very  gratifying  to  the  English  people.  A 
recent  writer  upon  the  subject  has  gone  so  far  as  to  say: 
' '  The  control  of  the  people  over  the  schools  is  complete, — that 
is  so  far  as  the  State  is  concerned.  The  curriculum  of  the 
schools  is  no  longer  prescribed  by  the  State ;  all  that  the  State 
retains  is  the  power  of  veto  in  cases  where  the  efficiency  of 
the  school  is  liable  to  be  impaired.f 

•National  Union  of  Teachers'  edition  of  Code,  p.  11. 
t  "The  Making  of  Citizen*,"  Hughes,  p.  33. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     69 

And  yet,  notwithstanding  this  rather  emphatic  statement  by 
an  Englishman,  it  is  a  fact  that  the  Code  does  require  that 
each  principal  teacher  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  shall  pre- 
pare a  course  of  study  and  a  syllabus  covering  the  entire 
year,  both  of  which  must  be  passed  upon  by  His  Majesty's 
Inspector  before  the  annual  per  capita  grant  of  five  or  six 
dollars  will  be  paid  to  the  school.  It  will  also  be  observed 
upon  later  pages  of  this  study,  that  those  subjects  of  instruc- 
tion for  which  the  State  bounty  is  given,  appear  to  very  many 
and  different  environments  to  possess  qualities  very  superior 
to  those  that  do  not  draw  the  State  grant.  The  question  is, 
does  not  the  legal  suggestion  of  the  Board  as  expressed  in  the 
Code  amount  to  the  same  thing  as,  and  open  the  opportunity 
for,  a  system  strictly  bureaucratic  in  reference  to  the  curricu- 
lum of  the  elementary  schools? 

If  the  further  response  is  made  that  this  cannot  be  true, 
inasmuch  as  no  time  allotment  is  required  by  the  State,  one 
could  reply  by  quoting  from  the  Code  of  1903  (Act  79), 
which  shows  one  of  the  general  conditions  of  the  grant  to  be 
that  "the  time  table  must  be  approved  for  the  school  by  the 
Inspector  on  behalf  of  the  Board. ' '  In  one  corner  of  the  time 
table  is  a  space  in  which  the  number  of  minutes  per  week 
assigned  to  each  subject  is  to  be  posted.  So  that  the  Inspector 
practically  passes  upon  the  time  allotments  as  well  as  upon 
the  distribution  of  subject  matter  throughout  the  grades, 
which  is  about  all  the  German  and  French  Inspectors  are 
allowed  to  do. 

The  possibilities,  then,  are  present  for  a  bureaucratic 
system.  The  fact  that  the  government  of  the  curriculum  of 
England  is  not  strictly  bureaucratic  is  due  to  the  liberality 
of  interpretation  upon  the  part  of  the  Inspector  and  the 
Board,  and  to  a  vigorous  democratic  sentiment  among  the 
masses. 

In  the  presence  of  these  last  mentioned  factors,  it  cannot 


70     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

be  correctly  said  that  the  curriculum  is  compulsory  for  all  the 
country.  The  question  is  largely  left  to  the  Head  Master,  the 
Local  Managers,  and  the  Inspector,  the  last  of  whom  is  easily 
satisfied.  So  delicate  is  the  balancing  of  powers  between  the 
Local  Managers  and  the  Board  at  London  that  no  conflict 
arises.  The  Board  in  the  Revised  Instructions  for  1903 
specifically  says:  "The  greatest  freedom  possible  is  allowed 
to  Managers  and  teachers  in  planning  and  carrying  out  the 
courses  of  instruction  comprising  these  subjects.  It  is  not 
required  that  all  of  them  should  be  taught  in  every  class  of 
the  school,  and  one  or  more  of  them  may  be  omitted  in  any 
school  which  can  satisfy  the  Inspector  and  the  Board  that 
there  is  good  reason  for  such  omission."*  This  refers  to  the 
subjects  included  in  the  first  ten  numbers  in  Table  XXIV. 
The  Board  claims  the  right  of  veto  in  case  of  inefficient  expen- 
diture of  the  State's  funds.  It  is  possible,  although  I  cannot 
admit  that  it  appears  in  the  least  probable  from  all  the  cases 
here  studied,  that  the  majority  of  local  Managers  would  prefer 
these  same  subjects  taught  their  children  if  there  were  no  sug- 
gestion upon  the  part  of  the  State. 

We  really  have  presented  to  us  for  the  first  time  a  course  of 
study  which  is  both  compulsory  and  optional;  both  required 
by  the  central  authority  of  a  bureaucratic  government,  and 
yet  elective  to  suit  the  needs  of  the  individual  environment 
of  a  democratic  people.  Truly  it  seems  a  paradox,  yet  who 
knows  but  that  the  remedy  for  the  static  condition  of  the 
curriculum  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  the  loose,  unrelated  and 
ununified  curriculum  on  the  other  hand  may  not  be  found  in 
the  British  ideal  ?  The  French  and  Germans  complain  of  too 
much  organization,  too  much  uniformity,  and  too  little  pro- 
vision for  the  individualistic,  while  in  America  we  complain 
of  too  large  a  provision  for  the  purely  individualistic  and  a 
total  absence  of  that  necessary  relation  between  the  course  of 

•Revised  Instructions  for  1903,  p.  70. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     71 

study  in  one  town  and  another.  Have  not  the  English,  upon 
the  administrative  side,  a  suggestion  for  the  three  other 
nations  ? 

2.     The  Adoption  ~by  Schools  of  the  Curriculum  Prescribed 

by  State. 

The  English  system  of  prescribing  the  elementary  curricu- 
lum is  peculiarly  interesting  to  the  American,  who  in  recent 
years  has  grown  most  enthusiastic  over  the  perfection  of  the 
German  bureaucratic  system  of  public  education,  but  is  with- 
held from  subscribing  to  it  because  of  the  absence  of  individual 
liberty  and  democratic  ideas.  England  presents  to  him  a 
system  which  keeps  fairly  balanced  both  phases  of  education, 
even  if  the  system  is  not  always  efficient.  It  is  true  that  the 
immense  chasm  which  intervenes  between  the  school  and  the 
central  government  sometimes  alarms  the  champion  of  unitary 
and  perfectly  adjusted  systems  of  education,  but  that  chasm 
ought  not  to  appall  the  American  educator  who  could  not  dis- 
cover the  first  joint  of  connection  in  any  system  of  education 
in  his  own  country.  Under  the  English  system,  at  any  rate, 
the  ten  subjects  required  by  the  central  government  are  taught 
in  the  city  schools,  while  there  is  no  guarantee  that  the  same 
subjects  will  be  taught  in  any  two  American  cities. 

Since,  however,  there  is  left  to  the  individual  schools  in 
England,  as  has  been  shown,  a  large  privilege  of  choice  in  the 
subjects  of  instruction  other  than  the  ten  "prescribed,"  a 
further  study  is  necessary  before  we  can  arrive  at  the  impor- 
tance attached  to  the  various  subjects  by  the  English  people. 
What  this  relative  importance  of  subjects  is  held  to  be  among 
other  progressive  nations  is  an  assistance  to  us  in  determining 
their  importance  for  ourselves.  For  in  proportion  as  two 
nations  have  similar  elements  in  that  environment  to  which 
they  must  adjust  the  child,  in  just  such  proportion  will  they 
both  value  those  subjects  of  instruction  which  have  proven 


72     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

the  most  effective  agents  of  that  adjustment.  There  are  per- 
haps few  elements  in  the  industrial  life  of  England  which  are 
not  equally  important  in  the  industrial  life  of  America,  and 
few  elements  in  the  moral,  religious  and  physical  environment 
which  are  not  duplicated  in  America.  And  it  is  to  those  rela- 
tively simple  elements  in  his  environment,  so  similar  in  both 
countries,  that  it  is  the  function  of  the  public  elementary 
school  to  adjust  the  child. 

Our  largest  task  in  this  entire  study  is  to  determine  the 
theoretical  and  the  actual  relative  importance  attached  by  a 
government  and  by  the  democratic  masses  to  a  specific  subject 
of  instruction.  We  shall,  therefore,  first  present  a  table 
(XXIV.)  showing  the  number  of  departments  (schools)  in 
the  English  elementary  school  system  (age  of  chidren,  seven 
to  fourteen)  which  receive  the  grant  from  the  State  treasury 
for  teaching  any  of  the  thirty-six  respective  subjects  pre- 
scribed upon  the  "required,"  the  "elective"  and  the  "extra 
grant"  list  of  the  Board  of  Education.*  In  England  there 
may  be  three  departments  in  the  same  building,  viz.,  Boys', 
Girls',  and  Infants'  Departments.  In  1903  there  were  4,002 
Boys'  Departments,  3,883  Girls',  15,466  Mixed  and  8,197  In- 
fants' Departments.  There  were  then  in  the  year  under  con- 
sideration, 23,351  departments  in  the  elementary  schools 
(children  seven  to  fourteen  years  old). 

The  figures  in  Table  XXIV.  show  the  numbers  of  depart- 
ments in  which  a  given  subject  is  taught.  A  score  of  23,351 
to  a  subject  indicates  a  perfect  correlation  between  the  curric- 
ulum of  the  individual  school  and  that  prescribed  by  the 
Board  of  Education.  The  figures  should  show  the  relative 
compliance  to  the  will  of  the  Board  of  Education  as  expressed 
in  its  list  of  ' '  required, "  "  elective ' '  and  ' '  extra ' '  subjects.  The 
table  is  divided  into  these  three  divisions:  subjects  numbered 

*The  terms  "elective"  and  "extra"  are  used  to  describe  the  second  and 
third  lists  above,  respectively. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     73 

TABLE  XXIV. — Showing  the  Number  of  Departments  (Boys,  Girls,  or 
Mixed  Schools)  out  of  23,351  under  the  Control  of  the  English 
Board  of  Education,  in  which  the  Various  Subjects  of  Instruc- 
tion are  taught.* 

Number  of 
Departments  in 
^______ which  Taught. 

Subjects  Required  for  the  Grant  from  the  State  Treasury. 


1   Reading,  Writing,  Arithmetic 

23,351 

2  Composition 

23,347 

3  Grammar 

23,307 

4  Geography 

23,340 

5  History 

23,231 

6  Common  Things 

23,340 

7   Drawing 

20,177 

8  Needle-work 

19,369 

9  Physical  Training 

23,326 

10  Singing 

23,346 

List  from  which  Schools  may  elect  One  or  More  Subjects. 


11  Algebra 

1,383 

12   Euclid 

198 

13  Mensuration                                                                                        |                349 

14  Mechanics 

263 

15  Science    (Elementary    or    Experimental    Physics,    Chem- 
istry, etc.) 

596 

16  Animal  Physiology                                                                            |                252 

17  Hygiene                                                                                                |                  51 

18  Botany  or   Horticulture 

157 

19  Principles  of  Agriculture 

59 

20  Latin 

26 

21  French 

742 

22  German 

15 

23  Welsh 

131 

24  Hebrew 

2 

25  Bookkeeping 

164 

26  Shorthand 

538 

27  Typewriting  or  Business  Subjects 

21 

28  Domestic    Economy   or    Domestic    Science 

974 

29  Kindergarten    Subjects 

15 

Subjects  for  which  Extra  Grants  are  paid. 


30  Cookery    (for   Girls) 

|             3,810 

31   Laundry  Work 

817 

32  Dairy  Work 

1 

33  Household   Management 

210 

34  Cottage   Gardening    (for 

Boys) 

481 

35  Manual   Instruction 

1,907 

36  Cookery    (for  Boys   in   Seaport  Towns) 

8 

•This  table  is  taken  from  Board  of  Education  Statistics  ending  August 
31,  1903,  page  101. 


74     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

1-10  are  the  required  subjects;  11-29  are  the  subjects  from 
which  one  or  more  subjects  may  be  elected  "when  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  School  make  it  desirable  in  the  opinion  of 
the  Inspector;"  while  departments  teaching  30-36  receive  an 
extra  bonus  from  the  State  treasury. 

These  figures  should  also  show  the  relative  importance 
attached  to  a  subject  when  corroborated  by  Tables  XXV.  and 
XXXV.  This  particular  table  is  not  conclusive  but  only  sug- 
gestive upon  the  subject  of  relative  importance  of  subject 
matter,  first,  for  the  reason  that  it  is  most  likely  much  biased 
in  the  preference  shown  for  those  subjects  which  have  a  mon- 
etary value  because  of  their  ability  to  draw  the  parliamentary 
grant;  and,  second,  for  the  reason  that  no  idea  of  the  time 
devoted  to  a  subject  is  presented.  But  so  far  as  it  may  be 
accepted,  it  shows  that  the  "three  RV  occupy  positions  of 
first  importance.  Next  stands  composition,  then  singing, 
geography  and  nature  study,  physical  training,  history,  gram- 
mar, drawing  and  needlework,  in  the  order  named.  This 
completes  the  list  of  required  subjects. 

By  subtracting  the  sum  of  the  differences  between  the  scores 
attained  by  the  nine  subjects,  which  were  below  the  perfect 
correlation,  from  the  highest  possible  number  (23,351) 
attained  by  one  subject,  there  would  remain  6,266  schools  not 
scored  in  the  required  list.  Just  about  this  number  of  schools 
are  scored  in  the  second  list  from  which  the  one  or  two 
electives  are  to  be  chosen.  This  may  be  readily  seen  by  add- 
ing the  scores  of  the  subjects  of  instruction  numbered  11  to 
29,  inclusive.  From  this  it  would  appear  that  a  subject  is 
dropped  from  the  required  list  when  one  from  the  elective  list 
is  chosen.  As  to  the  question  of  the  compliance  made  by  the 
local  School  Managers  and  Headmasters  to  the  more  strictly 
mandatory  curriculum  including  the  first  twelve  subjects  in 
Table  XXIV.,  it  can  be  said  that  if  the  Board  had  said  em- 
phatically, "Each  school  receiving  the  grant  shall  teach  each 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     75 

of  these  twelve  subjects,"  only  6,266  exceptions  would  have 
occurred  in  a  possibility  of  233,510.  This  indicates  a  very 
close  correlation  between  the  subjects  on  the  list  prescribed  by 
the  central  authority  and  that  prescribed  by  the  local  school 
authorities. 

Of  the  "extra  grant"  subjects  not  more  than  one  for  every 
three  schools  is  the  average  chosen.  The  eight  subjects  out 
of  twenty-six  possible  electives  which  receive  a  score  as  high 
as  five  hundred  in  the  two  latter  sections  of  this  table  are 
algebra,  science,  French,  shorthand,  domestic  economy,  cook- 
ery, laundry  and  manual  training.  The  last  six  emphasize 
the  utilitarian,  the  first  two  the  formal. 

Here  then,  we  begin  to  get  a  glimpse  of  the  emphasis  placed 
upon  subjects  by  the  English  people  in  real  practice.  These 
data  suggest  that  the  purely  scientific  and  the  purely  practical 
are  uppermost  in  the  English  mind  in  the  elementary  schools. 
The  public  has  decided  that  the  formal  and  the  useful  shall 
predominate  in  the  education  of  the  masses  in  England.  What 
we  please  to  call  the  art  side  of  the  curriculum,  i.e.,  good 
literature,  art  in  its  various  forms,  are  the  subjects  that 
suffer  if  there  be  omissions.  In  the  required  list,  literature  is 
not  provided  for,  and  the  subjects  drawing  and  needlework, 
which  are  omitted  from  the  largest  number  of  schools,  are  the 
only  two  in  the  list  which  might  be  said  to  offer  art  training. 
In  the  other  two  lists,  the  different  forms  of  handwork  which 
might  be  enumerated  as  subsidiary  to  the  art  studies,  are 
provided  for  in  only  five  or  six  per  cent  of  the  schools.  The 
formal,  the  scientific,  the  ultilitarian,  the  practical,  are  re- 
garded as  important,  while  that  which  responds  to  the  emo- 
tional and  the  artistic  needs  of  the  child  and  of  the  race  are 
not  emphasized  in  these  elementary  schools  as  a  whole. 

Many  American  teachers  may  observe  with  delight  that  the 
incubus  of  their  existence,  spelling,  is  omitted  from  the  lists 
entirely.  This  means  that  no  theoretic  importance  is  attached 


76     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

to  it.  However,  an  examination  of  Table  XXV.,  or  any  of 
the  following  tables,  will  show  that  it  does  possess  an  actual 
importance  among  the  schoolmasters,  and  sometimes  among 
the  Inspectors.  The  high  score  of  spelling  in  Table  XXV. 
is  correlated  from  reading  lessons,  dictation,  etc.  In  this 
sense  it  appears  quite  as  important  as  does  the  subject  recita- 
tion which  is  on  the  Board's  grant  list.  Actually,  there  are 
thirteen  out  of  thirty-eight  schools  in  Table  XXV.  which 
provide  for  the  subject  of  spelling  as  a  recitation  apart.  It  is 
interesting  that  teachers  of  the  English  language,  when  an 
opportunity  is  given  to  omit  spelling,  do  not  accept  the  offer. 
One  wonders  if  many  of  the  tirades  against  spelling  are  really 
sincere. 

So  far  this  section  of  the  discussion  has  been  devoted  to  the 
enumeration  of  the  subjects  required  and  suggested  by  the 
central  authority  and  the  number  of  individual  schools  adopt- 
ing them.  We  find  that  the  English  curriculum  contains  the 
same  subjects  as  those  prescribed  for  the  German  Volksschule, 
but  that,  unlike  that  system,  the  time  and  grade  in  which  the 
subject  is  taught  is  not  prescribed.  A  knowledge  of  these  two 
facts  is  necessary  for  a  successful  comparative  study.  Our 
only  approach  to  a  correct  estimate  of  the  relative  values  of 
our  own  system  and  that  of  England,  then,  is  through  a  com- 
parison of  the  length  of  time  spent  in  school  by  the  children 
of  the  two  countries. 

3.     Comparison  of  the  English  Standard  and  the  American 

Grade. 

The  English  standards  and  our  grades  are  usually  spoken 
of  as  equivalent.  Let  us  see  if  this  be  true.  In  England 
children  enter  the  Infant  School  (Department,  or  Class,  ac- 
cording to  the  several  terms)  between  the  ages  of  three  and 
seven  years.  Thus,  before  entering  the  first  standard  (grade) 
the  child  may  have  had  four  years'  training  and  must  have 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     77 

had  at  least  two,  in  compliance  with  the  law  compelling 
attendance  between  the  ages  of  five  and  fourteen  years.  He 
has  spent  approximately  four  hours  and  a  half  per  day  in 
the  school  room  during  these  years.  The  English  child  enters 
the  first  standard  at  the  age  of  seven  with  at  least  two  years 
of  training;  the  American  child  enters  the  first  grade  at  the 
age  of  six,  but  has  rarely  received  any  training  before  that 
time. 

In  England,  the  school  year  is  never  less  than  two  hundred 
days ;  in  America,  its  average  length  is  one  hundred  forty- 
three  and  two-tenths  days,  possibly  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  days  for  cities.  The  school  day  in  England  is  apportioned 
about  as  follows :  two  hours  at  noon,  fifteen  minutes  morning 
and  ten  minutes  afternoon  recess,  the  session  opening  at  9  A. 
M.  and  closing  at  4 :30  P.  M.,  which  gives  five  hours  per  day, 
— about  thirty  minutes  more  than  the  American  child  has  in 
the  school  room  or  in  recitation.  (Compare  American  time 
allotment  Tables  II.-XI.  with  the  school  periods  for  the  sev- 
enty-eight English  schools  herein  studied.)  However,  we 
should  not  forget  that  in  England  the  seventh  and  eighth 
standards  are  not  well  attended,  owing  to  the  exemptions  (p. 
66)  already  mentioned.* 

Of  the  real  knowledge  of  the  child  at  the  completion  of  his 
fourteenth  year,  it  is  difficult  to  speak,  as  that  must  depend 
in  a  large  degree  upon  the  efficiency  and  methods  of  the 
teacher. 

A  summary  of  the  content  of  the  Infant  School  cur- 
riculum is  given  below,  and  for  a  comparison  of  the  re- 
mainder of  the  school  course  examine  Tables  XIV.-XVIII. 
and  Tables  XXXIX.-XLIII.  The  summary  is  taken  from 
the  Infant  Department  of  the  Addison  Garden  School, 
London. 

•Statistics  of  Board  of  Education  for  1904,  p.  6. 


78     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

Average  Number  of  Average  Number  of 

Subject.                  Minutes  per  Week.  Subject.                  Minutes  per  Week. 

Scripture     125       Physical  Exercise 56 

Reading    207       Singing     56 

Writing    120       Stories    26 

Arithmetic   150      Recreation   125 

Drawing 52       Memory  Gems 52 

Needlework    90       Object   Lessons 60 

Kindergarten  Occupations   ....     109       Kindergarten  Games  22 

Mental  Arithmetic 45       Optional  Lessons   22 

The  pupil,  upon  leaving  the  Infant  Section  at  the  age  of 
seven  for  the  first  grade  of  the  Elementary  School,  is  supposed 
to  have  read  through  three  readers ;  is  able  to  write  both  small 
and  capital  letters  and  copy  words  and  sentences;  can  do 
simple  sums  involving  notation  up  to  fifty  in  addition,  subtrac- 
tion, multiplication  and  division,  and  knows  the  multiplication 
table  up  to  six  times  six ;  has  had  some  work  in  clay  modeling, 
sewing  and  paper  folding,  and  has  learned  many  songs  and 
something  of  the  elements  of  singing. 

From  Tables  XIV.-XVIII.  and  XXXIX.-XLIII.  it  will  be 
seen  that  in  arithmetic,  science  and  formal  grammar  the 
English  sixth  grade  pupil  has  covered  considerably  more 
ground  than  the  American;  but  in  nature  study,  literature, 
geography  and  history  he  is  not  at  all  in  advance. 

It  is  not  true  then,  that  in  all  respects,  the  standard  of  Eng- 
lish schools  and  the  grade  of  American  schools  are  similar. 
The  pupil  in  an  English  standard  is  somewhat  farther  ad- 
vanced, is  one  year  older,  has  had  at  least  two  years  more 
training,  and  recites  a  longer  period  of  time  during  the  year 
than  the  pupil  of  the  American  grade  of  the  same  rank. 

4.     General  Treatment  of  Subjects  by  Standards. 

We  may  advance  the  discussion  of  the  relative  values  of  the 
subject  matter  of  the  curriculum  by  a  study  of  Table  XXV. 
This  table  was  made  up  from  a  study  of  thirty-eight  curric- 
ula ot  English  schools,  thirty  of  which  contained  first  stand- 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     79 


ards;  thirty-seven,  second  standards;  thirty-eight,  third, 
fourth,  fifth  and  sixth  standards;  thirty,  seventh  standards, 
and  four,  eighth  standards.  The  figures  in  the  table  represent 
the  number  of  schools  teaching  the  respective  subjects  in  the 
grade  in  which  the  score  is  written. 

This  table  should  answer  three  questions:  First,  do  the 
individual  schools  conform  to  the  prescribed  curriculum  of 
the  Board  of  Education?  Second,  in  what  grades  do  the 
several  subjects  of  instruction  occur?  Third,  how  important 
are  the  different  subjects  as  measured  by  the  number  of 
grades  in  which  they  are  taught  and  by  the  number  of  schools 
which  prescribe  them? 

TABLE  XXV. — Showing  the  Number  of  English  Schools  (of  the  thirty- 
eight  Schools  selected)  and  the  Grades  (Standards)  in  which  the 
Various  Subjects  are  taught. 


Grade 


I.         II.        III.      IV.        V.       VI.     VII.    VIII. 


1  Scripture 

2  Reading 


26 


30 


33 


34 


26 


I     28    |     34    I     36    |     37    |     38    |     38    I     30   I       3 


3  Writing 

28 

33 

35 

36 

36 

37 

27 

3 

4   Spelling 

21 

24 

26 

26 

20 

18 

10 

1 

5  Grammar 

20 

27 

31 

32 

33 

34 

29 

2 

6  Recitation 
Literature 

19 
5 

22 
5 

23 
6 

24 
6 

24 
6 

23 
6 

19 
5 

3 

7  Composition 

19 

26 

27 

58 

31 

31 

21 

3 

8  Arithmetic 
Albegra 
Mensuration 

27 

34 

34 

36 
2 
2 

38 
9 
2 

38 
13 
3 

30 
11 
1 

3 

1 

9  Geography 

24 

30 

33 

34 

35    |     34 

27 

3 

10  History 

7 

12    |     15 

21 

25    I     23 

17 

2 

13  Elementary       Science      or 
Common  Things 

27 

31 

33 

32 

32 

35 

27 

1 

16  Physical    Training 
Swimming 

23 
3 

30 
3 

32 
3 

33 
3 

35 
5 

35 
4 

29 
4 

1 

17  Drawing 


32    |     34    |     36    |     36 


38 


28 


18  Singing                                      |    23 

30 

32 

37 

38 

34 

27    1       3 

19  Manual    Training                   |       1 

1 

2 

2 

12 

15 

15 

2 

20  Needle-work 
Cookery 
Laundry 

13 
3 

19 
2 

19 
3 

20 
5 

21 
10 
2 

23 
12 
2 

19 
8 
2 

1 

21  Stenography 

3 

6 

5 

22  French 

1 

3 

9 

9 

Mechanics 

2 

2 

2 

Recreation 

17 

21 

21 

22 

22 

22 

16 

2 

Review     or     Revision     of 
Home   Work 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

4 

4 

General     Information 

4 

4 

4 

6 

7 

8 

6 

School    Garden 

1    1       3 

1 

Euclid 

i 

1 

80     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

In  answer  to  the  first  question,  this  table  shows  that  the 
subjects  receiving  a  high  score  are  on  the  "required  list," 
or,  in  other  words,  those  having  a  money  value.  No  better 
example  of  this  can  be  taken  than  that  of  manual  training. 
The  Code  specifies  that  the  Board  shall  not  give  the  grant 
except  for  children  twelve  years  old  and  over.  Consequently, 
manual  training  is  found  below  the  fifth  grade  in  only  two 
schools  out  of  the  thirty-eight.  America  and  France  have 
demonstrated  that  the  teaching  of  this  subject  has  just  as  val- 
uable results  in  the  primary  grades.  The  English  have  aban- 
doned recently  the  system  of  issuing  the  grants  according  to 
the  examinations  passed  by  the  pupils,  but  they  still  have  con- 
siderable reform  to  work  before  the  curriculum,  which  theoret- 
ically offers  such  splendid  opportunities  for  electives,  can 
possess  in  this  respect  more  than  a  hypothetical  worth. 

As  to  the  grades  in  which  the  subjects  are  taught,  the  tend- 
ency seems  to  be  to  follow  among  the  required  studies  the  Ger- 
man plan  which  requires  that  a  subject  once  introduced  shall 
continue  with  no  decrease  of  time  allotment  to  the  end  of  the 
course.  However,  the  scores  indicate  that  there  is  one  grade 
which  could  be  called  the  center  towards  which  the  subjects 
seem  to  gravitate.  Subjects  regarded  as  of  preeminent  impor- 
tance, such  as  religion  and  the  "three  R's,"  of  course,  appear 
equally  popular  in  each  grade. 

READING  possesses  the  peculiarity  in  England  of  being 
more  popular  as  it  advances  towards  the  higher  grades.  This 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  much  history,  geography,  science  and 
literature  is  taught  in  the  special  readers. 

The  tendency  towards  an  emphasis  on  formal  studies  and 
also  the  practice  of  grafting  high  school  subjects  on  to  the 
elementary  curriculum  without  adequate  preparation  are  illus- 
trated in  the  case  of  GRAMMAR  and  ALGEBRA.  Instruc- 
tion in  grammar  begins  in  the  second  grade,  a  practice  found 
nowhere  else  in  this  investigation. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     81 

The  high  scores  of  GEOGRAPHY  in  the  earlier  grades 
indicate  prominent  attention  to  home  geography.  The  grades 
round  which  it  tends  to  center  are  the  fourth,  fifth  and  sixth. 

The  scores  occurring  in  the  columns  for  HISTORY  and  for 
LITERATURE  are  indicative  of  the  comparatively  slight  im- 
portance attached  to  these  subjects.  To  one  educated  in  Amer- 
ican schools  neither  of  them  seems  to  receive  its  just  due.  His- 
tory does  not  come  to  its  greatest  prominence  until  the  fourth 
grade  is  reached;  while  literature,  when  taught,  is  about  as 
prominent  in  one  grade  as  another, — a  practice  novel  to  the 
American  school  teacher. 

The  subject  most  frequently  taught  in  the  English  schools 
to  children  from  the  age  of  three  to  fourteen  is  SINGING. 
It  does  not  exceed  the  "three  R's"  in  quantity  of  time,  but  it 
excels  all  others  in  distribution.  In  the  Statistics  of  the  Board 
of  Education  for  1904,  p.  10,  it  is  stated  that  the  number  of 
departments  both  for  older  and  for  infant  children  amounts 
to  31,548  for  all  England.  In  only  five  of  these  is  singing  not 
taught.  Has  the  American  educational  public  as  great  an  ap- 
preciation of  this  subject?  Certainly  in  America  the  subject 
fails  to  be  taught  in  twenty  schools  out  of  every  hundred. 

Thus  far  the  attempt  has  been  to  show  from  Table  XXV. 
that  there  is  complete  adherence  to  the  prescribed  course  of 
study  in  England  so  far  as  the  required  list  is  concerned.  The 
"elective"  list  and  the  "extra  grant"  lists  are  not  receiving 
prominent  attention  in  England.  We  have  tried  to  show  the 
probable  grade  toward  which  subjects  tend.  "We  have  also 
tried  to  show  the  relative  importance  attached  to  certain  sub- 
jects, so  far  as  Table  XXV.  would  indicate.  The  conclusions 
were  fairly  definite  as  to  singing,  algebra,  literature,  history, 
manual  training  and  grammar.  In  order  to  substantiate  these 
conclusions,  and  to  arrive  at  definite  results  with  reference  to 
the  other  subjects  of  instruction,  it  will  be  necessary  to  study 


82     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

the  time  allotments  in  the  elementary  schools.     This  shall  be 
our  next  task. 

5.     Time  Allotments  of  the  Various  Subjects,  with  Special  At- 
tention to  Instruction  in  Religion,  Handwork 
and  Physical  Culture. 

Tables  XXVI.-XXXV.,  inclusive,  were  made  from  twenty- 
two  curricula  representing  ten  cities  whose  aggregate  popula- 
tion is  over  six  millions.  For  three  of  the  cities,  London,  Man- 
chester and  Bolton,  it  seemed  advisable  to  average  five  time- 
tables each,  making  a  composite  which  more  nearly  represented 
the  city  than  would  any  individual  school  curriculum.  Each 
school,  and  not  each  city  system,  is  the  unit  in  England.  For 
this  reason,  the  schools  of  a  large  city  show  as  great  a  variation 
in  time  allotment  as  two  different  cities,  and  sometimes  greater. 
The  English  excel  all  other  nations  in  adjusting  the  curricu- 
lum to  the  needs  of  the  individual  environment,  within  cer- 
tain prescribed  limits. 

A  low  time  allotment  to  a  subject  in  a  table  made  up  of  sev- 
eral different  schools  would  indicate  possibly  the  absence  of 
that  subject  upon  one  of  the  programs,  or  it  might  mean  an 
insignificant  amount  of  time  spent  upon  it  in  several  of  the 
schools.  In  either  case  the  relative  unimportance  is  probably 
suggested  by  the  environment. 

The  ten  cities  furnishing  the  material  for  this  study  were 
London,  Manchester,  West  Ham,  Norwich,  Carlisle,  West 
Hartlepool,  Wellingborough,  Bolton,  Castleford  and  New- 
castle. Two  of  them  possess  over  a  million  people,  three  over 
one  hundred  thousand,  two  approximately  fifty  thousand  and 
three  range  between  fifteen  and  twenty  thousand.  The  dis- 
tribution includes  approximately  all  sections  of  England,  rep- 
resenting eight  counties.  In  each  case  the  curriculum  has 
been  passed  upon  by  H.  M.  Inspector.  In  many  cases  the  In- 
spector himself  collected  the  syllabi.  In  nearly  every  case 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     83 

the  environment  was  analyzed  to  show  the  economic,  industrial 
and  social  life  from  which  the  pupils  came.  The  attendance 
and  the  staff  of  the  school  were  also  given.  An  adequate  basis 
for  the  selection  of  representative  curricula  was  thus  fur- 
nished. The  attempt  was  to  include  all  the  representative  ele- 
ments of  English  life  found  in  the  public  elementary  schools. 
Factory  districts,  crowded  city  tenement  districts,  residential 
suburbs,  coastal  towns,  mining  sections,  and  wealthy  neigh- 
borhoods are  all  represented. 

Each  table  is  supposed  to  show  five  facts  about  the  element- 
ary curriculum  of  that  city :  first,  the  subjects  taught ;  second, 
the  grades  in  which  they  are  taught ;  third,  the  number  of  min- 
utes per  week  given  to  each  subject  in  each  grade ;  fourth,  the 
percentage  of  total  weekly  recitation  time  devoted  to  the  re- 
spective subjects  in  each  grade ;  fifth,  the  percentage  of  total 
time  devoted  to  each  subject  in  the  entire  school  life  of  the 
child. 


84     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  XXVI. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  week  devoted  to 
Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time 
given  to  Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of 
London,  England. 


Grade                  I.        II.       III.      IV. 

V.      VI.     VII.    VIII. 

Pet 

1  Scripture 

155|     158|     100|     153 

100|     1551     KJ2 

102  11.8 

2  Heading 

180|     191)     188|     175 

10tt|     125 

121 

B3 

11.4 

X  Writing 

78  1       89 

88 

08  1       02  1       94 

101 

70 

• 

4   Spelling 

29)       20 

20  1       23 

19 

20 

10 

1.38 

5  Grammar 

55 

02  1       01 

531       50 

70 

105 

130|    5.54 

6  Literature 

34 

40 

43 

40 

41 

25 

44 

90J    3.34 

7  Composition                      02 

50 

87 

08|       41 

38 

34 

5ti|    4 

8  Arithmetic                       248 

234 

237 

242 

207 

101 

204 

102 

15.N 

Algebra 

0|       32 

48 

82 

173|    3.19 

9  Geography                           38  1       04  1       90  1       94  1       70  1       05 

72|       85  1    0.34 

10  History                                 83|       41|       00|       50|       50|       54|       55|       70|    4.4 

12  Object   Lessons 

73 

75|       50|       51|       39 

41  1       45 

80  1    4.3 

10  Physical   Training 

50 

49|       50|       48|       50 

52|       65J       00|   4 

Swimming 

8|         8|       10| 

(0) 

17  Drawing 

132 

105|     100 

100|     111|     130|     140|     202 

9.05 

18  Singing 

50 

57 

51|       00|       47|       47|       50|       70|   4 

19  Wood-work 

40 

40  j       47|       70|       07| 

2.47 

20  Needle-work* 

(52)|  (52)|  (72)|  (72)|  (84) 

(78)|  (97) 

(75)|(5.44) 

23  French 

25|       24|       12|       13|        12 

45  1       50 

72  j   5J.37 

Exam,  of  Home-work| 

10)        10 

IS 

Total 

1203|  1314  1  1301  1  1294 

1248  1  1254 

1385|  1508 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1  Scripture                    |   12.3 

12.1 

12 

11.9 

12.8|    12.4 

n.8|  IO.HI 

2  Reading 

14.3 

14.0 

13.8|    13.0 

12.8|    10 

8.8 

5.2 

3  Writing 

0.2 

0.8 

0.5  |      5.3|      5 

7.5 

7.5 

4.5 

4  Spelling 

2.2 

2 

1.0|       !.'.••      1.5|      1.5 

.7 

5  Grammar 

4.4 

4.8 

4.5|      4.1|      4.5 

5.0|      7.0|      8.3 

0  Literature 

2.7 

3.1 

3.2|      3.1|      3.3 

2 

3.2  1      5.7 

7  Composition                 |      5 

4.3 

0.4|      5.3|      3.3|    3.31|      2.5|      3.2 

8  Arithmetic                  |    19.7^18 

17.4J    18.8|    10.0|    12.9|    14.8 

10.3 

Algebra 

1 

.5|      2.0  1      3.9|      0 

11 

9  Geography 

3 

4.9|      0.0|      7.3|      5.0|      5.2|      5.3 

5.41 

10  History 

0.0 

3.2|      4.9|      3.9|      4 

4.3 

4 

4.5| 

i'2  Object  Lessons 

5.8|      5.8|      4.1  1      3.9 

3.1 

3.3 

3.3 

5.1| 

16  Physical    Training 

4     |      3.8 

4.1 

3.9  1      4.7 

4.9 

5.5 

:'..* 

17   Drawing 

10.5  1      8 

7.4       8.2|      8.9 

io.:{ 

10.0 

i-.;t 

18  Singing 

4     |      4.4  1      3.8  1      4.7  1      3.8 

3.8 

4.1 

4.5 

•Figures  enclosed  within  parenthesis  in  any  table  In  this  book  Indicate 
that  the  figures  are  to  apply  to  recitation  time  for  girls  only.  A  cipher  in- 
cluded within  parenthesis  is  to  Indicate  that  the  assignment  does  not  apply 
to  recitation  for  girls.  Manifestly  the  figures  in  parentheses  should  not  be 
counted  In  averaging  the  percentages  of  total  time,  as  these  figures  are 
already  counted  In  duplicate  time  assignments  of  recitations  for  boys. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     85 

TABLE  XXVII. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to 
Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time 
given  to  Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of 
Manchester,  England. 


Grade                         I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI.     VII.     Pet. 

1  Scripture 

260  |      260  |      260  |      260  |      260  |      260  |      260  |  18.9 

2  Reading 

192|      178|      177|      148|      153|      111]      103|11 

3  Writing 

120)      liyj      111|         91 

46  1        45|        38  1    5.9 

4   Spelling 

44  1         65 

54  1        57|        82  1        20  1        35|    3.1 

5  Grammar 

65 

73|        77|        77 

87  1        96|        99|    5.9 

6  Literature 

42|        41|        28  1        28 

32  1        39|        32|    2.5 

7  Composition 

10|        33|        68  |        70|        68 

2.6 

8  Arithmetic 

259|      242  1      235  1      239 

205  |      223 

205 
~80 

16.6 

Algebra 

42|        70|        68 

2.7 

9  Geography 

50|        54|        99|      109|      110|      110 

110|    6.6 

10  History                                         7|          7|          7|          7 

7|          7 

9 

12  Object    Lessons                     70  1        72 

26  1        26 

26|        26  1        26 

2.8 

13  Mensuration    (b) 

12|         12| 

16  Physical   Training                62  1        61  1        62 

62 

62 

63  1        64 

4.5 

Swimming                         Once 

a  week  in  some  schools. 

17   Drawing                                    96|        98  1      104|      110|      108|      120|      124|    7.9 

18   Singing                                      66  1        64  1        64 

60|        60|        62  1        58)    4.5 

19  Wood-work 

100  |        96 

96 

3 

20  Needle-work                      (120)  |  (120)  |  (120)  |  (120) 

(120)|(120) 

(120) 

(8.7) 

23  French 

13|        22 

22  1 

Total                                      1333  |    1334 

1314]    1349]    1439)    1450]    1441  1 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to 
Grade  per  Week. 

Each 

Subject  in  Each 

1   Scripture 

19.6|     19.6|     19.9|     19.3|     18.1|     18     |     18.1| 

2  Reading 

14.5|     13.4|     13.5|     11 

I0.6f      7.7]       7.2 

3  Writing 

9 

9 

8.5|       6.8|       3.2|       3.1|       2.7 

4  Spelling 

3.3        4.9|       4.1|       4.2|       2.2|       1.4|       2.4 

5  Grammar 

4.9  1      5.5|      5.9|      5.7 

6.1|       6.6  1       6.9 

6  Literature 

3.2]       3.2|       2.2|       2.1|       2.2|       2.7  1       2.2 

7  Composition 

2.5|       4.7|       4.8|       4.7| 

8  Arithmetic 

19.5     18.2)     18 

17.7 

14.31     15.4|    14.3| 

Algebra 

3.11       4.9|       4.7 

5.6| 

9  Geography 

3.8  1       3.9J       7.6|       8.1J       7.7  1       7.6 

7.7| 

10  History 

.6 

12  Object  Lessons 

5.3)       5.4  1       2 

1.9|       1.8)       1.8 

1.8 

16  Physical   Training 

4.7|      4.7  \      4.8  1      4.6|      4.2|      4.4 

4.5 

17  Drawing 

7.2|      T.8|      8 

8.2 

7.5 

ZH 

8.3|       8.6 

18  Singing 

5 

5 

4.9  1       4.5 

4.3 

4 

19  Wood-work 

7     |      6.5 

6.7 

20  Needle-work 

9 

9 

9.2  1       8.9 

8.4  1      8.3 

8.4 

23  French 

1 

1.5 

1.5 

86     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  XXVIII. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to 
Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time 
given  to  Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of 
West  Ham,  England. 


Grade 


II.        III.       IV. 


V. 


VI.     VII.     Pet. 


1   Scripture                         |      175|      175 

175|      175|      175|      175|      175|12.1 

2  Reading 

210|      270 

175J      175J      175J      140J      105J12.4 

3  Writing 

70 

70 

35 

35|        35|        35]       35|   3.12 

4  Spelling 

175 

175 

175 

175 

175|      175|      175|12.1 

5  Grammar 

35 

35 

35 

35 

45[       45 

U.5S 

G  Literature 

40 

40 

40 

40 

40 

40  1        40 

2.78 

7  Composition 

100  |      100  |      100  |    2 

8  Arithmetic 

325 

325  |      360 

360 

360 

325  |      300  |  24 

Algebra 

1 

35  1        35 

.7 

9  Geography 

35|        70|        70|        70|        70)        70 

70|    4.51 

10  History 

|        35|        35|        35 

35  1        35 

35  1    2.8 

13   Elementary   Science      I        35|        35|        35|        35 

35 

35 

35  1    2.4;{ 

16  Physical   Training 

35 

35|        35|        35|        35 

35 

35  1    2.43 

17  Drawing 

105 

105  1        75  1      105  1      105 

105 

105|    7 

18  Singing 

70 

70|        70|        70 

70 

70 

70 

4.Hti 

19  Wood-work 

120 

120 

120 

.'{.57 

20  Needle-work                   |  (165)  |  (105)  |  (105) 

(166) 

(1  »i.,) 

(165)  !  (165) 

(11.4) 

Occupations 

1        40|        40 

40|        40 

40 

40 

2.38 

Domestic  Economy 

60|        60|        60|        4()|        40 

40 

40 

3.37 

Total 

12i'fil    14.SO 

i:i5r> 

1385|    1505|    1580 

1580| 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1   Scripture 

1:1.8 

11.8 

13 

12.7 

11.6 

11.1 

11.1 

2  Reading 

ifi.ti 

18.3 

13 

12.7 

11.6 

8.9 

<;." 

8   Writing 

5.5 

4.7 

2.6 

2.6 

2.3 

2.2 

2.2 

4   Spelling 

13.8 

11.8 

13 

12.V 

11.6 

"  11.1 

11.1 

5  Grammar 

3.2 

2.3 

2.6 

2.6 

24.1 

20.6 

22.8 

6  Literature 

2.7 

3 

2.8 

2.6 

2.5 

2.5 

7  Composition 

6.3 

»!..'{ 

8  Arithmetic 

L'O.fi 

22 

26.7 

26 

24.1 

20.6 

22.8 

9  Geography 

2.8 

4.7 

5.2 

5 

4.6 

4.4 

4.4 

10  History 

2.3 

2.6 

2.6 

2.3 

2.2 

2.2 

13  Elementary    Sci- 
ence 

2.8 

2.3 

2.6 

2.6 

2.3 

2.2 

2.2 

16  Physical    Train- 
ing 

2.8 

2.3 

2.6 

2.6 

2.3 

2.2 

2.2 

17  Drawing 

K.:-t 

7 

5.6 

7.6 

7 

6.7 

6.7 

18  Singing 

5.5 

4.7 

5.2 

5 

4.6 

4.4 

4.4 

20  Needle-work 

(13) 

(11.2) 

(12.2) 

(11.  Hi 

(To.fo 

(TTi.ro 

Occupations 

2.7 

3 

2.8 

2.6 

2.5 

2.5 

PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     87 


TABLE  XXIX. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to 
Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time 
given  to  Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of 
Bolton,  England. 


Grade 


I. 


II.       III.      IV.       V. 


VI.     VII.     Pet. 


1   Scripture                               196  1      197 

207  1      207  1      207 

207  1      207  1  13.2 

2  Reading                                 210|      210 

218  j      190  |      206 

202  j      167  j  12.9 

3  Writing                                 162  1      119 

168 

148|      170|      170|      157|10.1 

5  Grammar                                 57  j        59 

95 

92  1         92  |         85  |         92 

5.25 

6  Literature                               56 

52 

39 

45  1         45 

45 

45 

3 

7  Composition                            26 

26 

26         26  |        30 

30 

30  1    1.78 

8  Arithmetic                            213 

235 

227 

286 

282 

299  1      291  116.8 

Algebra 

24 

30  1        66 

1.11 

9  Geography                             74 

n 

86 

98         86|        88|        88 

5.49 

10  History 

6 

12 

35|        28|        28|        28|    1.26 

11  Object  Lessons 

12  Elementary   Science            71  1       63 

77 

50 

47|        47|        47 

3.64 

13  Nature  Study 

16  Physical  Training 

61  1        62 

62 

63 

62)        62|        62|    4 

17  Drawing 

133 

144 

136 

118 

113|      113J      113|    8 

18  Singing 

57 

54 

54 

50  1        54 

54|        55|    3.47 

Paper    Folding,    etc. 

35 

35 

8 

6 

6 

20|        20|    1.2 

20  Needle-work                    |(131) 

(131)  |  (138) 

(138) 

(138)|(138)|(138)|(8.74) 

Total                                      1482  |    1467 

1533|    1552|    1590|    1618]    1606| 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 

1   Scripture                         |  13.3 

13.5 

13.4 

13.4    |  13 

12.8 

12.8 

2  Reading 

14.2 

14.4 

14.1 

12.3   |  13 

12.5 

10.3 

3  Writing 

11 

8.2 

10.9 

9.6 

10.7 

10.5 

9.7 

. 

5  Grammar 

3.8 

4.1 

6.1 

6 

5.8    |     5.3 

5.7 

6  Literature 

3.8 

3.6 

2.5 

3 

2.8 

2.8 

2.8 

7  Composition 

1.8 

1.8 

1.7 

1.7 

1.9 

1.9 

1.9 

8  Arithmetic 

14.4 

16.1 

14.7 

18.5 

17.7 

18.5      18 

Algebra 

1.5 

1.9        4.1 

9  Geography 

5 

5.1 

5.6 

6.3        5.4 

5.4        5.4 

10  History 

.8 

.8 

2.3    |     1.8 

1.7        1.7 

12  Object  Lessons 

| 

13  Elementary    Science 

4.8 

4.3 

5 

3.3 

2.9  |    3 

3 

14  Nature  Study 

1           I 

16  Physical  Training 

4.1 

4.2 

4 

4            3.9        3.8 

3.8 

li    Drawing 

;> 

9.9 

8.8 

7.6        7.1 

7 

7 

18  Singing 

3.9 

3.7 

3.5 

3.3        3.4 

3.3 

3.4 

19  Wood-work 

2.4 

2.4 

.5 

|      .5|      .5 

1.2 

1.2 

20  Needle-work 

1  (9) 

(9) 

(9) 

(8.7)|  (8.5)|  (8.5) 

88     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  XXX. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to 
Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time 
given  to  Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of 
Norwich,  England. 


Grade                                  I. 

II.       III. 

IV.      V.       VI. 

VII.    Pet. 

1   Scripture 

175 

175|     17")  |     175|     17")|     145|     14.JJ10.5 

2  Heading 

240|     240 

160|     160|       80  1       40)       80|   9.5 

3  Writing 

160 

40 

40 

40 

40 

40 

40  1   3.64 

4  Spelling 

30  1       90 

120 

115 

120 

105 

100|   6.21 

5  Grammar 

90  1       60 

00 

60 

60 

60|       60]   4.15 

6  Literature 

40 

40 

40|       40 

40  1       40  1       40  1    2.58 

7  Composition 

m 

265 

265  1     230 

200  1     235)     200  1  14.3 

8  Arithmetic 

240 

240  1     200  1     240 

240|     240|     200|  15. 

9  Geography 

80      80  1     so  |     m 

80 

SO 

80|   5.11 

10  History 

40|       40|       40|       40 

"   40 

40 

8o|   2.92 

12  Object  Lessons 

40 

40|       40|       40 

40 

40       40]  2.6 

13  Elementary  Science 

1            1 

16  Physical    Training 

60 

60  1       60|       60 

60  1      60 

60|  3.3 

17   Drawing 

120 

120 

160|     160 

160 

160  1    120    9 

18  Singing 

40         40 

401       40 

80 

80|      30    4 

19  Manual    Training 

40  1       40 

40 

40 

40 

150|    150    4.6 

Exam,  of  Home-work 

50|       50|       50 

50 

50 

50|       50|    3.25 

Total 

1615]  1620 

1570|  1570|  1545|  1555|  1525| 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1  Scripture 

10.8|    10.8 

11.2|    11.  2|    11.3)      9.4 

9.4 

2  Reading 

14.8|   14.8 

10.2|   10.2|     5.2|     2.6 

5.21 

3  Writing 

9.9 

2.5|      2.6|      2.6 

2.6 

2.6 

2.6 

4   Spelling 

1.9 

5.6|     7.7 

7.3 

7.8 

6.8 

6.6 

5  Grammar 

5.6|      3.7|      3.8 

3.8 

3.9 

3.9 

3.2 

6  Literature 

2.5  1     2.5)     2.6 

2.6       2.6 

2.6 

2.6 

7  Composition 

10.5|   16.4|   16.9 

14.7|    13 

15.2 

13.1 

8  Arithmetic 

14.8|    14.8)   12.8 

15.3|   15.5 

15.5 

13.1 

9  Geography 

5 

5 

5.1  1     5.1|     5.2 

5.11 

5.2 

10  History 

2.5       2.5|      2.«|      2.6 

2.6 

2.6 

5.2 

12  Object   Lessons 

2.5|      2.5|      2.6|      2.6 

2.6 

2.6 

2.6 

13  Elementary  Science 

1 

16  Physical    Training 

3.7  1      3.7 

3.6 

3.6|      3.9 

3.9 

4 

17  Drawing 

7.4  1      7.4 

10.2 

10.2 

10.  if 

10.2 

7.9 

18  Singing 

2.5 

2.5 

2.6 

2.6 

5.2 

5.2 

5.2 

19  Wood-work 

2.5 

2.5 

2.6 

2.6 

n 

9.7 

0.8 

Exam,  of  iiome-worK 

3.1 

3.1 

3.2 

3.2 

3.2 

3.2 

3.3 

PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     89 


TABLE  XXXI. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to 
Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time 
given  to  Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of 
Carlisle,  England. 


Grade                                            I. 

11. 

III. 

IV.      V. 

VI. 

Pet. 

1 

Scripture 

35  1 

35  1       35 

35  1       35 

35     2.54 

2 

Reading 

220| 

220|     195 

150|     150 

150 

13.1 

1 

Writing 

100  1 

100  1     100  1       55 

55  1       55 

5.61 

4 

Spelling 

135| 

135  1     135 

135 

6.51 

5 

Grammar 

55  1 

55 

55  1       BO]       90|       90 

5.31 

6 

Literature 

75| 

75 

75|       75|       75 

T8 

5.43 

7 

Composition 

55  1 

5o|       55  1       50|     190  1     190|    7.17 

8 

Arithmetic 

250  1 

250|     250|     420|     385|     425J23.9 

9  Geography 

80  1 

80  1       80  1       80|       80  1       80  1    5.79 

10 

History 

80  1 

80  1       80  1       55 

55)       55  1    4.88 

16 

Physical    Training 

100  1 

100|     120  1       30 

70  1       30 

5.43 

rer- 

17 

Drawing 

125| 

125|     125  1     125 

125  1     125 

18 

Singing 

75  1       75  1       75|       75 

75  1      7'§    5.43 

Total 

1385| 

1385)  1380|  1380|  1385|  1385| 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1    Scripture 

26 

26 

26 

26 

26 

26     | 

2  Reading                                                I    16 

16 

14.2 

10.9|    10.9|    10.9 

3  Writing 

7.3|      7.3|      7.3 

4 

4 

4 

'  4  Spelling 

9.8|      9.8|      9.8|      9.8 

5  Grammar 

4 

4 

4 

6.9  1      6.5  1      6.4 

6  Literature 

5.5      5.5  1     5.5|     5.5  1     5.5|     5.5 

7  Composition 

4 

4 

4 

3.6 

13.8|    13.8 

8  Arithmetic 

18.1  1    18.1 

18.1 

30 

27.9|    30 

9  Geography 

5.8|      5.8 

5.8 

5.8  1      5.8|      5.8 

10  History 

5.8J      5.8  1      5.8 

4 

4 

4 

16  Physical  Training 

7.3  1      7.3  1      8.7  1      2.2  1      5.1]      2T2" 

17  Drawing 

9.1|      9.1|      9.1J      9.1|      9.1 

9.1 

18  Singing 

5.5 

5.5 

5.5|      5.5|      5.5 

5.5 

90     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  XXXI I.— Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to 
Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time 
given  to  Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of 
West  Hartlepool,  England. 


Grade               I.        II.       III.      IV.         V.       VI.      VII. 

VIII.     Pet. 

1   Scripture            |     125 

125 

125  |     125 

125 

125|     125|     125|   11.7 

2  Reading 

175 

175 

170 

90 

00 

70 

70|       70 

10.7 

3  Writing 

70  1        70 

70 

70 

70 

70 

70  1       70 

e.e 

6  Literature 

100  |     100 

100  [     IOO 

100]      100 

100|      100|      9.4 

8  Arithmetic 

240  |      240 

aoo  i    3oo 

300  |      300 

280|      280 

26.3 

Algebra 

100|      100 

100 

3.5 

10  History 

45         45)        45|        45 

45        451       45 

45 

4.2 

13  Elementary 
Science 

100 

100 

100 

100 

105 

105 

105 

105 

9.6 

17  Drawing 

120  |      120 

120 

120      120 

120 

120      120 

11.3 

18  Singing 

70|        70         70|        70f       TO 

70        70|       70 

6.6 

19  Needle-work 

(240)  |  (240)  |  (240)  |  (240)  |  (240)   (240)  |  (240)  |  (240) 

(ii2.<5) 

Total 


1045|  1045|  1100|  1030 |  1025 |  1105|  1085 |  1085 | 


Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1  Scripture 

12.1|     12.1|     11.3|     12.3 

12.3 

11.3 

11.6 

11.6| 

2  Reading 

16.9 

16.9|     15.4|       8.9 

8.9 

6.3 

6.5 

6.5 

3  Writing 

6.8 

6.8|       6.3|       6.9 

6.9  1       6.3 

6.5  1       6.5 

6  Literature 

9.7 

9.7 

9 

9.9 

9.9  1       9 

9.3 

9.3 

8  Arithmetic 

23.1 

23.1 

27.1 

29.3 

29.5|     27.1 

26 

26 

Algebra 

1 

9 

9.3 

9.3 

10  History 

4.4 

4.4 

4.1 

4.5 

4.5 

4.1 

4.2 

4.2 

13  Elementary 
Science 

M 

9.7 

9 

9.9 

10.3 

9.5 

9.8 

9.8 

17  Drawing 

11.6 

11.6 

10.9      11.8|    11.8 

10.9 

11.2      11.2 

18   Singing 

tt.8 

6.8 

6.3  1       6.9 

6.9 

6.3 

6.5  1      6.5 

19  Needle-work 

23.1 

23.1 

21.7|     23.6 

23.6 

21.7 

22.3|    22.3 

PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     91 


TABLE  XXXIII. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to 
Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time 
given  to  Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of 
New  Castle-under-Lyme,  England. 


Grade 


I.       II.         III.     IV.      V.       VI.     Pet. 


1 

Scripture 

175 

175| 

175 

175| 

175 

175 

12 

2 

Reading 

255 

155| 

150 

150  1 

165 

165 

11.9 

1 

Writing 

235 

110| 

150 

190| 

120 

120 

10.6 

4 

Spelling 

70 

145  1 

io 

1 

3.3 

5 

Grammar 

30 

80  1 

115 

I4b| 

135 

13b 

7.3 

6 

Literature 

40 

30  1 

30 

4b| 

45 

45 

2.7 

•7 

Composition 

m 

80 

80  1 

85 

85 

4.6 

8 

Arithmetic 

220 

Mo\ 

225 

315| 

315 

315 

18.3 

5 

Geography 

45 

80  1 

90 

115| 

115 

115 

6.4 

12 

Object   Lessons 

90 

80| 

75 

45| 

45 

45 

4.3 

Hi 

Physical  Training 

60 

60  1 

60 

60  1 

60 

60 

4.1 

17 

Drawing 

120 

120| 

120 

lJiO| 

1540 

120 

8.  si 

1,S 

Singing 

90 

90  1 

90 

90  1 

90 

90 

6.2 

Total 

14.'5<) 

14.'{()| 

1430 

1530| 

1470 

1470 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1 

Scripture 

12.3|    12.3|    12.3|    11.5|    11.9 

11.9| 

•2 

Reading 

17.9 

10.9|    10.5|      9.8|    H.JJ 

11.2| 

8 

Writing 

16.5 

"T.7 

10.5|    12.4|      8.2 

8.2  1 

4 

Spelling 

4.9 

10.2       4.9  1 

1 

;» 

Grammar 

2.1 

5.6|      8.1  1     9.5 

9.2 

9.2 

»> 

Literature 

2 

2.1|      2.1 

2.9 

3.1 

3.1 

1 

Composition 

5.3|      5.6       5.2|      5.81      5.81 

9 

Arithmetic 

^5.4[    16.1  1    15 

20.6|    21.  4|    21.41 

0 

Geography 

3.2|      5.6 

7.5|     7.8|     7.8 

J-J 

Object  Lessons 

6.3|      5.6 

5.  IF 

a.9|    8.11    3.1 

Hi 

Physical  Training 

4.2 

4.2 

4.'I 

3.9 

4.1|     4.1 

17 

Drawing 

8.4  1      8.4  1      8.4 

7.9 

8.2  1      8.2| 

IN 

Singing 

6.3  1      6.3  1      6.3 

5.9|      6.2|      62| 

92     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  XXXIV. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to 
Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time 
given  to  Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of 
Wellingborough,  England. 


Grade 


I. 


II. 


III. 


IV. 


V. 


VI.       Pet. 


1  Scripture 

175 

175 

175 

175 

175 

175 

13.1 

2  Heading 

130 

130 

9O 

90 

90 

90 

7.8 

3  Writing 

30 

30 

30 

30 

30 

30 

2.3 

4   Spelling 

30 

30 

30 

30 

30 

30 

2.3 

5  Grammar 

2° 

40 

40 

40 

40 

40 

3.T~ 

6  Literature 

00 

60 

60 

60 

60 

60 

4.r, 

7  Composition 

40 

40 

40 

40 

150 

150 

n 

8  Arithmetic 

340 

340 

340 

340 

310 

310 

•24.  8 

Algebra 

70 

.8 

9  Geography 

80 

80 

120 

llid 

120 

120 

8. 

10  History 

60 

60 

80 

80 

80 

80 

',.', 

12  Object   Lessons 

80 

80 

80 

30 

:<.4 

10  Physical  Training 

60 

60 

60 

60 

60 

60 

4.5 

17   Drawing 

160 

160 

160 

160 

160 

160 

11.9 

18  Singing 

50 

50 

50 

50 

50 

50 

3.8 

19  Wood-work 

120 

120 

3.1 

20  Needle-work 

(160) 

(160) 

(160) 

(160) 

(160) 

(160) 

(11.9) 

Total 

1335 

1335 

1355 

1305 

1475 

1645 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1   Scripture                               1   13.8 

13.8 

13.6 

14 

12.3 

11 

2  Reading                                 j    10.3   |    10.3 

7 

7.2 

6.4 

5.7 

3  Writing                                  |      2.4   j      2.4 

2.4 

2.4 

2.1 

1.9 

4  Spelling                                       2.4   j      2.4 

2.4 

2.4 

2.1 

1.9 

5  Grammar                                   3.2 

3.2 

3.1 

3.2 

2.8 

2.5    | 

6  Literature                                   4.8   |      4.8 

4.7 

4.8 

4.2 

3.8 

7  Composition                                3.2 

3.2 

3.1 

3.2 

10.6 

9.4 

'  8  Arithmetic                              26.8 

26.8 

26.4 

27.  '2 

21.0 

liT.T, 

Algebra 

4.4 

9  Geography                                 6.3 

6.3 

9.3 

9.6 

8.5 

7.6 

10  History                                      4.8 

4.8 

6.2 

6.4 

5.7 

4.4 

13  Elementary    Science                6.3 

o 

9.8 

9.8 

8.5 

7.6 

16  Physical  Training                    4.8 

4.8 

4.7 

4.8 

4.2 

3.8 

11  I)rawlng                                    12.6 

12.6 

12.4 

12.8 

11.3 

10.1 

18   Singing                                          4 

4 

3.9          4 

3.5 

3.2 

19  Wood-  work 

8.5 

7.6 

20  Needle-work                         |U2.«H  (12.6) 

(12.4)1(12.8) 

(11.3) 

(10.1) 

PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     93 


TABLE  XXXV. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  week  devoted  to 
Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  Percentage  of  Total  Time 
given  to  Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of 
Castleford,  England. 


Grade 


I. 


II. 


III. 


IV.   V. 


VI.   Pet. 


1   Scripture 

75 

75 

75 

75 

75 

75    |   4.9 

2  Reading 

290 

290 

290 

210 

240 

240   1  17.4 

3   Writing 

60 

60 

60 

60 

60 

60   |    4 

4   Spelling 

180 

180 

120 

45 

45 

45   |    6.9 

5  Grammar 

30 

30 

75 

75 

75 

75   j   4 

6  Literature 

30 

30 

30 

60 

60 

60   j    3 

7.  Composition 

120 

45 

45 

45 

90 

90   |   4.8 

8  Arithmetic    (Boys) 

335 

335 

335 

335 

335 

335   j  22.5 

Arithmetic    (  Girls  > 

2T5 

275 

275 

275 

275 

275    |(18.5) 

9  Geography 

60 

60 

90 

140 

140 

140   j    7 

10  History 

60 

60 

60   |    2 

12  Object  Lessons 

1 

13  Elementary  Science 

60 

60 

60 

60 

60 

60   |    4 

16  Physical    Training 

60 

60 

60 

60 

60 

60   |    4 

17  Drawing 

150 

150 

150 

150 

150 

150   |10 

18  Singing 

75 

75 

75 

75 

75 

75    |    4.9 

20  Needle-work 

160 

160 

160 

160 

160 

160   |10.7 

Drawing    (Girls) 

(50) 

(50) 

(50) 

(50) 

(50) 

(50)|(3.4) 

Cooking 


(80)|  (80)|  (8())|  (80)|  (80)|  (80)  |  (5.4) 


Total 


1525  |  1450  |  1465  |  1450  |  1525  |  1525 


Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1   Scripture 

5 

5.2 

5.2 

5.2 

5 

5 

2  Reading 

19 

20 

19.9 

14.5 

15.8 

15.8 

3  Writing 

4 

4.2 

4.1 

4.2 

4 

4 

4   Spelling 

11.9 

12.4 

8.2 

3 

3 

3 

5  Grammar 

2 

2.1 

5.2 

5.2 

5 

5 

6  Literature 

2 

2.1 

2 

4.2 

4 

4 

7  Composition 

7.9 

3 

3 

3 

6 

6 

8  Arithmetic    (Boys) 

22.1 

23.2 

23 

23.2 

22.1 

22.1 

Arithmetic    (Girls) 

(18     ) 

(19     ) 

(18.9) 

(19.   ) 

(18     ) 

(18     ) 

9  Geography 

4 

4.2 

6.2 

9.7 

9.2 

9.2 

10  History 

4.2 

4 

4 

12  Object    Lessons 

lo  Elementary    Science 

4 

4.2 

4.1 

4.2 

4 

4 

16  Physical  Training 

4 

4.2 

4.1 

4.2 

4 

4 

17  Drawing 

10 

10.4 

10.4 

10.4 

10 

10 

Drawing    (Girls) 

(3.3) 

(3.5)|    (3.5) 

(3.5)|    (3.3) 

(3.3) 

18  Singing                                   |      5 

5.2   |      5.1 

5.2 

5 

5 

20  Needle-work 

10.5 

11.1 

11 

11.1 

10.5 

10.5 

Cooking 

5.2 

5.2 

5.4 

5.5 

5.2 

5.2 

94     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

These  tables  should  offer  evidence  corroborative  of  the  facts 
already  brought  out  in  the  previous  tables.  With  reference 
to  the  distribution  of  subjects  by  departments,  the  evidence 
offered  is  at  once  conclusive.  The  facts  tabulated  here,  while 
complementary  to  the  former  tables,  are  yet  more  definite  and 
more  conclusive.  For  the  amount  of  time  spent  in  teaching 
a  subject  is  the  most  prominent  factor  in  the  measurement  of 
the  importance  of  that  subject.  The  presence  of  a  subject  in 
several  grades,  together  with  a  large  amount  of  time  devoted 
to  its  recitation,  especially  when  found  in  the  more  progressive 
systems,  would  indicate  the  ideal  towards  which  the  schools 
on  the  whole  are  struggling.  We  have  attempted  to  secure 
the  more  progressive  of  the  curricula  of  the  city  schools,  know- 
ing that  the  trend  of  thought  embodied  in  them  probably  in- 
fluences the  curricula  of  other  towns. 

The  reader  must  be  cautioned  that  the  figures  given  in  these 
columns  must  of  necessity  offer  only  a  relative  and  not  an 
absolute  measurement  of  the  national  practice.  There  will  be 
exceptions  to  all  the  cases  enumerated.  However,  we  think 
that  the  evidence  points  toward  a  close  adherence  to  what  is 
found  in  these  tables  so  far  as  England  is  in  question. 

Before  entering  into  the  discussion  of  the  content  of  the  sub- 
ject matter  of  Tables  XXVI.-XXXV.,  it  is  necessary  to  intro- 
duce Tables  XXXVI.  and  XXXVII. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     95 


TABLE  XXXVI. — Showing  the  Average  Recitation  Time  in  Minutes 
per  Week  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade  (or  Standard) 
in  Ten  Cities  of  England. 


Grade              I. 

II. 

III.       IV.          V. 

VI.       VII.      VIII.     Pet. 

1   Scripture 

155|      155|      156|      156|      156|      156 

156|      156 

11.4 

2  Heading 

210|      206|      181|      154|      140J      127 

108  |        76 

11.1 

3   Writing 

123|        91|        85|        78|        69|        62 

731        701    6 

4  Spelling 

66|         85|         60|         58|         43|         39|         33 

5|    3.57 

5  Grammar 

42|         49|         66|         67 

67  |        70|        67 

65|   4.5 

6  Recitation      or 
Literature 

52 

57 

56 

53 

54 

53 

50 

95 

4.2 

7  Composition 

43 

52|        61|        54         85|        99|        72|        25|    4.5 

8  Arithmetic 

267 

266|      276|      308|      294|      293|      257|      231|20.1 

Algebra 

3|          3|          3|          5|        13|        35|        61|      136|    2.38 

9  Geography 

53|        64|        80|        9l|        87|        88|        70|        97|    5.7 

10  History 

32|        38|        37|        42 

40 

40 

34 

58  1    2.9 

12  Object    Lessons 
13  Elementary 
Science 
14  Nature   Study 

62 

61 

55 

44 

40 

41 

46 

92 

4 

16  Physical 
Training 

48 

49 

52 

42 

46 

43 

29 

30 

3.1 

17  Drawing                    115|      125 

125J      127|      127 

130|      121 

95 

8.8 

18   Singing                         64  1        64 

64  |        64  |        67 

67  1        65 

70 

4.8 

19  Wood-  work                   8 

16 

19 

18|        50 

61|        71 

2.1 

20  Needle-work          (103)  |  (103)  |  (106)  |  (106)  |  (107)  |  (106)  |  (126)  |  (157) 

(8.3) 

21   Cooking                    (14) 

(14) 

(14) 

(12)|    (12) 

(1^)1    (12)|             |(    -8) 

22  French                           4 

4 

2 

2|           2 

29|        36|        47|    1.1 

Total                         1347 

1369 

1361]    1359  |    1380 

1433|    1359|    1338] 

Showing  the  Average  Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  given  to  Each 
Subject  in  Each  Grade  in  Ten  Cities  of  England. 


1   Scripture              |     11.5|     11.  3|     11.5)     11.  5|     11.  3|     10.9 

11.5 

11.7 

2   Reading                |     15.6|     15.1 

13.3|     11.  3|     10.2|       8.9 

7.9 

5.7 

3  Writing 

8.9  1       6.7 

6.3|       5.8J       4.9|       4.4|       5.4 

5.2| 

4   Spelling 

4.9 

6.2 

4.4 

4.3|       3.1  1       2.7 

2.4 

•4| 

5  Grammar 

3.1 

3.6 

4.9 

4.9 

4.9|       4.9 

4.9 

4.9 

6  Recitation    or 
Literature 

3.9 

3.7 

3.7 

3.9 

3.9 

3.7 

3.7 

7.1 

7  Composition       |       3.2|       3.8 

4.5 

3.9 

6.2 

6.9  |       5.3 

1.9 

8  Arithmetic          |     19.8 

19.4  1     19.9  1     22.7  1     21.  3  1     20.5  1     18.9 

16.5 

Algebra               |        .2 

.2|        1.2J          .4|          .9|       2.5J       4.5 

10.2 

9  Geography          |      3.9 

4.7  1       5.9  j       6.7  1       6.3  1       6.2 

5.2 

9.3 

10  History 

2.4 

2.8|       2.7|       3.1 

3.9 

2.8 

3.4 

6.9 

13  Elementary 
Science,  etc. 

4.6 

4.5 

4.1 

3.3 

3.9 

2.8 

3.4 

6.9 

16  Physical 
Training 

3.6 

3.6 

3.8 

3.1 

3.4 

3 

2.2 

2.9 

17  Drawing 

8.5 

9.1 

9.2 

9.4 

9.2 

9.1        8.9 

7.1 

18  Singing 

4.8 

4.6 

4.7 

4.7 

4.9        4.7 

23 

5.2 

19  Wood-work 

.6 

1.2 

.9 

.9 

3.6|       4.3 

5.2 

20  Needle-work 

(7.7)  [  (7.5) 

(7.8) 

(7.8) 

(7.8)|  (7.4) 

(9.3) 

(10   ) 

21  Cooking 

(1.1)1  (  -9) 

(1.1)|  (    .9) 

(  .9)1  (  -9) 

(   .9) 

22  French 

.3|        .3 

.1|          .1 

.1|      1.9 

2.7 

3.5 

•6 


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PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.     97 

The  sparse  attendance  upon  the  seventh  grade  and  the  rarity 
of  the  eighth  grade  v«ry  much  depreciate  the  value  of  our 
figures  in  these  tables  (XXXVI.  and  XXX VII.)  for  these  two 
grades.  The  high  score  in  these  two  grades  is  not  real,  but 
only  relative.  There  are  only  two  eighth  grades  and  only  six 
seventh  grades  found  in  these  ten  cities,  and  yet  this  propor- 
tion of  seventh  and  eighth  grades  is  comparatively  larger  than 
would  be  found  if  a  larger  number  of  English  cities  were  in- 
cluded in  this  study.  The  aggregates  for  the  seventh  grade 
were  divided  by  six  and  those  of  the  eighth  by  two  for  the 
averages  instead  of  by  ten  as  in  the  other  grades.  So  that 
the  figures  in  these  two  columns  should  be  reduced  to  approach 
the  real  status  for  all  England.  But  in  Tables  XXVI.  to 
XXXV.  the  facts  are  true  to  the  individual  schools  from 
which  they  were  selected. 

The  first  subject  on  all  English  programs  is  RELIGION  or 
Scripture  as  it  is  sometimes  called.  Of  the  seventy-eight  ex- 
amined, not  one  failed  to  provide  for  the  teaching  of  the  Bible ; 
in  the  summary  of  the  ten,  arithmetic  is  the  only  subject  which 
receives  a  larger  time  allotment.  Study  of  this  subject  means 
Bible  reading  with  comment  and  Bible  study.  A  quotation 
from  an  English  writer  who  sometimes  indulges  in  sarcastic 
expressions  with  reference  to  the  godlessness  in  the  American 
and  French  schools,  is  pertinent  here : ' '  Parenthetically  it  may 
be  stated  that  in  practically  all  English  primary  schools  un- 
denominational religion  or  Bible  teaching  forms  part  of  the 
curriculum.  Bible  reading  without  comment  would  be  ludi- 
crous if  it  were  not  pathetic.  There  are  no  Godless  schools 
in  England."* 

The  religious  instruction  is  held  usually  the  first  thirty  or 
forty  minutes  of  the  morning  immediately  after  the  opening 
of  school  at  nine  o'clock,  which  is  the  very  best  period  of  the 
day,  and  frequently  the  programs  show  provision  for  work  in 

•  "The  Making  of  Citizens,"  Hughes,  p.  29. 


98     PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

this  subject  at  the  last  period  of  the  day  also.  One  hundred 
and  fifty-five  minutes  per  week  throughout  the  eight  grades  is 
the  average  time  assigned.  The  highest  time  allotment  is 
found  at  Manchester,  two  hundred  and  sixty  minutes  per 
week ;  the  lowest  in  the  extreme  north  of  England  at  Carlisle, 
thirty-five  minutes  per  week. 

The  same  provisions  that  occur  in  the  Prussian  law  prevail 
in  England,  by  means  of  which  any  child,  if  it  is  desired  by 
his  parents,  may  be  excused  from  school  during  the  conduct 
of  the  religious  exercises.  ( Code,  p.  185. )  It  is  further  stated 
in  the  law  that  "the  Inspector  shall  not  express  any  opinion  as 
to  time  or  allotment  for  religious  observances  or  instruction,  or 
as  to  the  nature  of  such  instruction,  but  shall  confine  himself 
to  seeing  that  the  prescribed  amount  of  time  is  received  for 
secular  instruction."  Religion  and  Scripture  study,  then,  is 
not  required,  and  not  one  cent  of  grant  is  paid  for  its  pro- 
vision, and  yet  few  schools  or  grades  are  without  that  subject. 

Table  XXXVIII.  gives  a  brief  of  the  syllabus  of  the  course 
of  study  in  Scripture  prescribed  for  the  London  schools  by  the 
School  Board  for  the  year  ending  July,  1904.  The  scores 
are  so  arranged  as  to  show  the  importance  of  Biblical  topics 
by  reading  the  horizontal  columns  in  which  will  appear  the 
repetition  of  subjects  from  grade  to  grade.  The  word  ' '  learn ' ' 
means  memorize.  There  are  twenty  prominent  sections, 
usually  chapters,  memorized  by  the  pupil  taking  the  entire 
elementary  course.  What  a  contrast  must  the  scriptural 
knowledge  of  one  of  our  children  present  to  that  of  the  least 
of  these!  The  popular  pedagogical  cant  stimulated  into  re- 
sponse by  such  accounts  as  the  foregoing,  is  that  memorizing 
the  choice  gems  of  the  Bible  is  not  studying  the  Bible.  No 
one  has  claimed  that  for  it,  but  only  that  it  seems  to  supply 
a  more  hopeful  basis  for  Bible  knowledge  than  is  found  in  the 
indescribable  mental  vacuity,  in  this  respect,  of  the  American 
school  boy. 


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100  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

In  READING  the  surprising  feature  is  the  small  amounts  of 
actual  and  of  relative  time.  The  percentage  is  scarcely  more 
than  half  that  found  in  the  American  tables,  and  the  actual 
minutes  per  week  in  the  primary  grades  are  only  half  what 
they  are  in  the  American  primary  grades.  But  if  the  time 
devoted  to  the  teaching  of  the  Bible  be  added  to  the  time  given 
to  reading,  then  the  total  is  equal  to  the  total  time  given  to 
reading  in  America.  The  suggestion  is  that  Bible  teaching 
may  be  an  auxiliary  to  reading,  and  that  the  English  people 
teach  this  additional  subject  with  no  loss  of  time,  whereas  we 
omit  it,  and  still  save  no  time  by  the  rather  costly  omission. 

The  absence  of  SPELLING  on  the  required  list  of  the  Gov- 
ernment (see  Table  XXIV.)  and  its  poor  showing  in  the 
grade  summary  of  Table  XXV.,  are  further  corroborated  in 
the  time  allotment  tables  by  an  average  of  only  3.5  per  cent 
(Table  XXXVI.). 

The  relative  total  time  given  to  LANGUAGE  is  practically 
the  same  as  with  us,  but  the  absence  of  stress  upon  literature 
and  the  accentuation  of  formal  grammar  already  mentioned, 
are  clearly  shown  by  these  tables.  It  appears  also  that  atten- 
tion is  given  to  grammar  in  the  earlier  grades,  while  it  is  very 
rarely  taught  before  the  fourth  grade  with  us. 

In  ARITHMETIC  the  English  course  shows  3  per  cent  more 
time  than  the  American,  with  about  5  per  cent  more  in  the 
earlier  grades.  Mathematics  shows  relatively  more  time  in 
England  than  in  any  of  the  four  countries  examined.  If  the 
2.38  per  cent  given  to  algebra  be  added  to  the  percentage  for 
arithmetic,  it  will  be  seen  that  this  study  exceeds  the  next 
most  prominent  subject  by  11.38  per  cent.  Mental  arithmetic 
is  also  included  in  most  of  the  syllabi,  its  prominence  being 
an  English  distinction. 

HANDWORK. — Drawing  for  boys  and  sewing  for  girls  are 
given  at  the  same  time.  Consequently,  the  parenthesis  refers 
to  the  fact  that  the  subject  enclosed  is  not  to  be  counted  in 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  101 

getting  the  total  weekly  recitation  time.  In  each  of  these  sub- 
jects much  more  earnest  activity  is  shown  than  with  us.  There 
is  over  2  per  cent  more  time  given  to  drawing  than  is  given  in 
any  American  school.  While  sewing  is  an  unknown  subject 
in  most  American  schools,  it  receives  8.3  per  cent  of  the  total 
recitation  time  of  girls  in  these  twenty-two  English  schools. 

It  may  very  much  surprise  the  enthusiastic  advocates  of  the 
"new  education"  in  America  to  learn  from  the  data  herewith 
compiled,  that  a  child  is  offered  a  far  wider  selection  of  courses 
in  handwork  in  the  English  elementary  school  than  in 
America.  The  following  quotation  is  from  "The  Educational 
System  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland"  (pp.  39-42),  by  Graham 
Balfour:  "The  whole  tendency  of  the  education  of  young  chil- 
dren in  England  of  late  years  has  been  in  the  direction  of 
sense  training, — object  lessons  and  manual  employment.  The 
chief  subjects  for  girls  encouraged  by  the  Department  of 
Elementary  Schools  are  (besides  needlework  and  cutting  out) 
cookery,  domestic  economy,  laundry  work,  dairy  work,  prac- 
tical housewifery  and  domestic  science.  Boys  are  encouraged 
to  take  shorthand,  book-keeping,  agriculture,  cottage  garden- 
ing, drawing  and  manual  training.  Since  1890  drawing  has 
been  compulsory  for  boys  and  manual  training  has  been  placed 
on  the  extra-grant  list  in  public  elementary  schools."  Our 
tables  have  borne  out  this  claim.. 

PHYSICAL  CULTURE. — More  actual  time  and  attention  are 
spent  in  the  care  of  the  health  and  the  development  of  the 
physical  self  in  the  schools  of  England  than  in  either  France, 
Germany  or  America.  The  time  allotments,  while  making  a 
fairly  good  showing,  do  not  properly  indicate  the  status  of 
physical  culture  in  the  English  schools,  for  the  English  organ- 
ize games  in  the  recess  periods  and  conduct  numerous  system- 
atic sports  after  school  hours  that  are  not  shown  in  the  time 
allotments.  Physical  culture  in  America  is  almost  entirely 
confined  to  the  indoor  gymnastics,  whenever  such  is  offered. 


102  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

Recess  counts  for  very  little  as  compared  with  the  two-hour 
periods  of  England.  Even  when  it  is  sufficiently  long  to  serve 
the  purpose  of  recreation  the  teacher  in  America  has  very 
little  to  do  with  it.  We  are  content  to  urge  the  advantages  of 
parks  and  playgrounds  for  our  children,  and  plenty  of  room 
and  air,  and  to  leave  it  at  that.  These  offer  opportunities,  but 
they  furnish  no  guarantee  of  physical  development. 

6.    Analysis  of  the  Content  of  Studies  into  Topics. 

We  have  discussed  the  importance  of  subjects  in  the  cur- 
riculum of  English  elementary  schools  as  measured  (1)  by  the 
judgment  of  the  Board  of  Education,  (2)  by  the  distribution 
of  schools  adopting  certain  subjects,  (3)  by  the  recurrence  in 
several  successive  grades  of  the  same  subject  and  (4)  by  the 
quantity  of  time  devoted  to  each  subject.  It  now  only  re- 
mains to  consider  the  intrinsic  value  of  a  subject  as  measured 
by  what  there  is  in  it.  "What  are  the  topics  into  which  one 
large  subject  is  divided?"  we  ask.  And  again,  "In  what 
grades  and  in  how  many  grades  are  these  topics  taught?" 
The  answer  to  this  last  question  will  help  to  find  the  important 
topics  in  a  given  subject,  as  measured  by  the  schools  and 
teachers  of  England. 

The  following  five  tables,  XXXIX.-XLIIL,  answer  the 
above  questions  without  the  need  of  comment.  Some  of  the 
topics  overlap,  but  an  omission  of  a  topic  or  a  synthesis  of 
topics  of  this  character  would  have  destroyed  the  value  of 
the  topics.  Twenty-two  of  the  larger  cities  and  towns,  located 
in  eight  different  counties,  are  represented  in  four  of  the 
tables.  The  analysis  of  nature  study  is  made  up  from  seven- 
teen curricula.  The  figures  show  the  number  of  curricula  in 
which  a  subject  is  taught  within  a  given  grade.  A  topic  may 
be  repeated  for  the  sake  of  review,  or  it  may  receive  more 
stress  in  certain  grades,  or  it  may  be  distributed  throughout 
all  the  grades. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  103 

TABLE  XXXIX. — Showing  the  Topics  in  Arithmetic  and  their  Distri- 
bution by  Grades  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  twenty- 
two  English  Cities. 


Standard 


I. 


II.    III.    IV.      V.       VI.    VII. 


Notation   and   Numeration 

12 

8 

4 

1 

1 

Addition 

20 

15 

10 

Subtraction 

20 

15 

12    | 

Multiplication 

15 

20 

19 

2 

Division 

9 

21 

22 

2 

Denomination  Numbers 

21 

15 

12 

Addition  and   Subtraction    Fractions 

7 

3 

Common  Fractions 

14 

10 

4 

Decimal   Fractions 

1 

20 

4 

Simple  Proportion 

1 

4 

17 

3 

Simple  Interest 

18 

2 

Averages 

2 

7 

Percentages 

1 

4 

8 

Stocks 

1 

7 

Simple    Rule   of   Three 

1 

4 

5 

Bills  of   Parcels 

19 

Compound    Proportion 

3 

3 

Investments 

1 

Greatest  Common  Divisor 
Lowest  Common  Multiple 

4 

2 

1 

Metric  System 

1 

4 

5 

I 

I 

Square  Root  &  Cube  Root 

1 

2 

12 

1 

Mensuration 

13 

2 

It  will  be  noticed  that  nearly  all  of  the  topics  in  ENGLISH 
are  included  under  grammar.  The  literary  reader,  poetry  and 
recitation  receive  a  high  score,  a  fact  which  somewhat  modifies 
the  former  statement  regarding  the  predominance  of  formal 
grammar  and  the  absence  of  literature.  A  high  score  indi- 
cates the  actual  practice  rather  more  than  numerous  topics 
do.  However,  to  make  the  score  of  formal  grammar  equal  to 
that  of  literature,  in  our  opinion,  is  to  give  grammar  too  great 
prominence. 

The  importance  of  HOME  GEOGRAPHY  (p.  81),  suggested 
by  previous  tables,  is  verified  by  Table  XLI.  The  popu- 
larity of  geographical  definitions  in  the  first  and  second  grades 
would  doubtless  irritate  an  American  specialist  in  geography 
or  child  psychology,  because  of  the  barrenness  and  abstraction 
of  the  topic  to  children  of  such  an  age.  Numerous  geograph- 
ical readers  are  used  to  teach  many  of  the  topics  here  outlined. 


104  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  XL. — Showing  the  Topics  in  the  English  Language  and  their 
Distribution  by  Grades  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of 
Twenty-two  English  Cities. 

Standard  I.         II.    III.    IV.      V.      VI.    VII.  VIII. 


Recitation                                                13 

10       11 

11 

12 

8 

6 

Literary    Reader                                         7 

7   |      7 

10 

8 

9 

6 

Ortnograph.v                                                 .i 

4          3 

'2 

2 

1 

1 

1 

Etymology 

2 

3 

1 

Composition                                               7 

11        10 

11 

15 

11 

I 

GRAMMAR 

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4          2 

1 

2 

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4 

2 

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10          5 

2 

2 

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3 

2 

1 

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5 

2 

2 

1 

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3         9 

4 

1 

1 

1 

Prepositions 

1 

3 

1 

1 

Interjections 

1 

1 

Cases 

1 

1 

1 

Agreement 

1 

1 

Mood  &  Tense 

1 

1 

Gender,   Number,   Person 

1          2 

2 

1 

Punctuation 

Compound   Sentences 

1 

Analysis  &  Parsing 

1          1 

8 

10 

11 

12 

1 

Qualities  of  Verbs                                      1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Inflections 

1 

Conjunctions 

1 

1 

1 

Parts  of  Speech                                          2 

4          6 

5 

4 

1 

Kinds  of  Sentences                                    2 

2          2 

1 

2 

Conversation                                             2 

2          2 

1 

2 

The  one  conspicuous  fact  learned  from  Table  XLIL  on  the 
topics  in  HISTORY  is  that  various  historical  readers  consti- 
tute the  topics  under  this  head.  Local  and  national  history 
are  presented  in  an  excellent  literary  form.  Many  American 
historians  have  felt  that  this  could  not  be  done  without 
compromising  either  the  historical  or  literary  ideal.  It  is  in- 
teresting to  notice,  however,  among  the  modern  movements  in 
America  the  attempt  to  secure  primary  histories  with  just  the 
qualities  found  in  the  English  readers. 

There  seem  to  be  fewer  topics  in  ARITHMETIC  than  with 
us,  and  yet  perhaps  half  of  these  might  be  omitted  without 
detriment  to  the  child. 

We  come  in  Table  XLIII.  to  a  subject  of  instruction,  NA- 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  105 


TABLE  XLI. — Showing  the  Topics  in  Geography  and  their  Distribution 
by  Grades  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  Twenty-two 
English  Cities. 


Standard 


I. 


II.    III.    IV.      V.      VI.    VII.  VIII. 


Home  Geography 

9 

« 

2 

Definitions  of  Outlines  of  England 

4 

5 

1 

Outlines    &    Political     Geography 
England   &  Wales 

14 

1 

Outlines   and   Political    Geography 
of   Ireland 

'2 

20 

Europe 

3 

19 

1 

1 

India 

1 

9 

* 

Africa 

2 

6 

5 

Foreign  Possessions 

4 

11 

3 

Scotland 

3 

21 

1 

Australia 

5 

3 

6 

1 

United  States 

2 

5 

8 

Outlines  of  Earth 

1 

1 

1 

Geographical  Terms 

13 

13 

1 

Canada 

6 

4 

6 

4 

England 

2 

12 

2 

1 

New  Zealand 

2 

4 

3 

Tasmania 

1 

1 

1 

Mexico 

1 

1 

Central   and  South  America 

1 

1 

West  Indies 

2 

1 

TABLE  XLII. — Showing  the  Topics  in  History  and  their  Distribution 
by  Grades  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  Twenty-two 
English  Cities. 

Extra 
Standard  I.        II.     III.    IV.      V.      VI.     VII.     VIII. 


Historical    Header 

6         9 

14 

17 

9 

16 

13 

1 

Tudor   Period 

1 

i) 

1 

Stuart    Period 

3 

« 

3 

Historical  Biography 

1         1 

1 

Topics   by    English    Sovereigns 

1         1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Stories  from  10(1(3  —  Tudor  Period 

3 

Norman   Period 

2 

General  Outine  English   History 

1 

2 

Plantagenet 

1 

Hanover 

1 

TUBE  STUDY,  whose  chief  characteristic  is  its  impenetrable 
confusion  of  topics.  There  were  such  numerous  unrelated  top- 
ics that  it  was  impossible  to  give  them  all,  so  they  have  been 
grouped  under  the  best  known  topics.  This  is  not  so  difficult 
to  do  in  an  English  school,  for  there  the  emphasis  is  more  com- 
pletely laid  upon  the  formal  side  of  the  study  than  with  us. 
In  two  of  the  syllabi,  there  were  one  hundred  and  fifty-two 


106  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  XLIII. — Showing  the  Topics  around  which  Object  Lessons 
tend  to  be  grouped  in  Seventeen  English  Schools,  together  with  the 
Number  of  Cities  and  Grades  in  which  They  are  taught 


Standard 


I.         II.    III.    IV.      V.        VI.    VII. 


Physics 

15 

13 

14 

12 

12   |    10 

5 

Chemistry 

1 

1 

1 

Physiology 

1 

1 

1 

4 

5 

2 

3 

^Hygiene 

1 

1 

1 

2 

Animal   Study 

4 

(J 

8 

3 

1 

2 

3 

Plant   Study 

1 

4 

4 

5 

4 

5 

4 

Neighboring   Industries 

'2 

2 

Geology 

1 

topics,  all  of  equal  value.  No  casual  sequence  or  any  other 
kind  of  sequence  seemed  to  bind  the  topics  together.  Not  quite 
as  much  confusion  was  found  in  the  ten  American  syllabi 
studied,  but  still  there  is  little  unity. 

Valuable  experiments  are  being  undertaken  in  some  of  the 
English  schools  looking  toward  making  nature  study  a  center 
of  correlation.  It  is  made  the  point  of  departure  for  teaching 
all  the  other  subjects  in  the  primary  grades  in  several  of  the 
syllabi  examined.  One  such  syllabus  was  forwarded  by  the 
Inspector  over  his  signature,  stating  that  it  was  the  best  school 
showing  the  correlation  around  nature  study  in  his  district. 
The  results  did  not  seem  to  the  present  writer  to  warrant  any 
definite  conclusions,  but  it  is  mentioned  here  for  the  benefit  of 
others  who  may  wish  to  employ  nature  study  in  similar  experi- 
ments. The  work  now  being  done  in  nature  study  in  the  Lon- 
don schools  would  well  repay  careful  study  upon  the  part  of 
American  educators. 

7.    Method  of  Relief  from  the  Overcrowded  Curriculum. 

The  foregoing  topics  afford  several  suggestions  to  the  Amer- 
ican teacher  interested  in  the  relief  of  the  OVERCROWDED 
CURRICULUM.  In  the  first  place  there  are  few  readers  which 
are  not  geographical,  historical,  literature  or  nature  study 
readers.  The  former  criticism  of  the  doubtful  literary  value  of 
such  readers  is  being  rapidly  dissipated  in  recent  years.  The 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  107 

study  of  geography  and  history  is  confined  to  text-books  relat- 
ing to  England  and  its  possessions,  leaving  out  the  study  of 
comparatively  unimportant  countries  and  making  no  effort,  as 
we  do,  to  cover  the  globe.  In  arithmetic,  topics  which  do  not 
have  a  place  in  the  lives  of  the  children  are  omitted,  for  exam- 
ple, rule  of  three,  cube  root,  partial  payments,  Troy  weight,  etc. 
Even  in  language  study  the  English  have  shown  a  tendency 
towards  omission.  In  nature  study  they  seem  as  much  con- 
fused as  we  are,  yet  perhaps  the  grouping  of  the  various  topics 
under  the  pure  sciences  is  an  indication  of  an  effort  to  system- 
atize. The  outright  omission  of  relatively  unimportant  sub- 
jects, and  the  grouping  of  many  others  around  a  few  larger 
topics,  are  the  suggestions  from  the  English  curriculum  which 
may  help  us  to  a  solution  of  the  problem  of  overcrowding. 

8.    Conclusions. 

In  the  previous  pages  we  have  presented  data  relative  to 
several  features  in  the  English  elementary  curriculum,  the 
larger  part  of  it  bearing  directly  upon  the  content,  the  time 
allotments,  and  the  importance  of  the  various  subjects  within 
the  curriculum.  The  facts  have  been  allowed  to  tell  their  own 
story,  and  to  suggest  in  themselves  the  points  of  discussion. 
We  have  had  no  theories  to  prove,  but  have  only  been  desirous 
of  discovering  the  truth  as  presented  by  the  data.  Some  of  the 
conclusions  have  been  mentioned  immediately  after  expla- 
nation of  the  statements,  and  need  not  be  repeated.  But  it  may 
be  well  to  state  briefly  certain  other  more  general  conclusions, 
whether  derived  in  a  negative  or  a  positive  way  from  this 
study.  Space  is  not  allowed  to  draw  all  the  implications  in- 
volved in  the  data;  much  is  left  for  the  interested  educator 
to  do. 

Summarizing  then,  we  should  say  that  the  order  of  impor- 
tance attached  to  subjects  by  the  English  school  is  about  as  fol- 
lows. The  "three  R's,"  as  usual,  usurp  the  first  place.  The 


108  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

second  rank  will  be  contested  for  by  religion  on  the  one  hand, 
as  against  grammar  and  composition  combined  on  the  other. 
The  third  place  is  disputed  by  drawing,  needlework  and  sing- 
ing. Physical  training  should  be  placed  fourth,  when  we  re- 
member the  great  attention  devoted  to  this  subject  during  the 
long  recess  periods  over  and  above  that  provided  for  within 
school  hours.  Geography  and  nature  study  take  fifth  place, 
while  history  comes  last.  These  thirteen  subjects,  with  the 
additional  electives,  make  quite  as  rich  an  actual  curriculum 
as  is  found  in  the  American  schools. 

Theoretically,  the  elective  system  of  England  is  very  desira- 
ble. It  offers  a  wide  scope  for  the  individual  development  of 
the  child  and  for  adjustment  to  his  individual  environment. 
But  owing  to  the  coercive  influences  of  the  parliamentary 
grant  system,  few  electives  are  really  taught.  However,  Amer- 
ica will  do  well  to  learn  from  the  ideal  involved  in  the  elective 
system. 

There  is  perhaps  a  larger  actual  provision  in  our  curriculum 
for  child  development  than  in  England,  as  we  do  not  distribute 
the  subjects  over  the  grades  so  regardless  of  the  capacities  of 
the  child  as  do  the  schools  of  England.  In  the  second  place, 
the  grade  is  the  basis  of  electives  and  not  the  pupil  in  Eng- 
land. While  this  perhaps  offers  a  more  sensible  manner  of 
providing  electives  for  the  school,  yet  it  does  not  contribute  as 
much  to  individual  development  as  does  the  other  form  of  of- 
fering electives.  And  yet,  possibly,  the  English  supply  more 
subjects  from  the  immediate  knowledge  and  environment  of 
the  child,  and  make  more  appeals  to  motor-activity  and  to 
sense  training  than  we  do. 

The  provisions  of  their  curriculum  would  give  more  freedom 
to  a  principal  and  more  help  to  a  teacher,  because  the  required 
syllabus  and  curriculum  is  individual  to  the  school,  whereas 
with  us  the  same  curriculum  is  given  for  the  whole  city. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  109 

England  may  teach  us  how  to  discover  a  central  bureau- 
cratic system  which  will  unify  the  curriculum  for  the  whole 
country  and  yet  allow  individual  electives  adaptable  to  differ- 
ent environments. 

Can  there  be  an  organic  relation  between  the  kindergarten 
and  the  primary  grades  ?  The  English  answer  in  the  affirma- 
tive, and  show  how  it  may  be  done,  so  far  as  the  subject  matter 
is  concerned. 

There  is  an  evil  tendency  shown  by  such  high  school  subjects 
as  algebra,  French  and  pure  science,  to  wedge  their  way  into 
the  elementary  curriculum  without  preparation  for  them. 
Education  by  development  is  only  possible  with  a  curriculum 
which  is  itself  a  related  whole  and  a  development  from  the 
first  to  the  eighth  grade. 

More  attention  is  given  to  motor-active  subjects  in  England 
than  in  America,  and  at  the  same  time  more  time  and  attention 
are  given  to  the  formal.  They  likewise  give  a  great  deal  more 
memory  work  than  we,  in  memorizing  gems  of  literature  and 
selections  from  the  Bible,  and  in  mental  work  in  arithmetic. 
Our  gain  is  in  the  volitional,  semi-scientific  and  the  aesthetic, 
represented  by  history,  geography,  reading  and  literature. 

The  most  severe  criticism  to  be  made  upon  the  English  cur- 
riculum is  in  regard  to  the  absence  of  a  serious  provision  for 
the  emotional,  the  volitional,  and  in  some  senses,  the  aesthetic, 
in  the  curriculum,  and  the  supreme  predominance  of  the  in- 
tellectual. 

We  have  criticised  the  English  distribution  of  difficult  sub- 
jects in  grades  containing  children  too  young  to  grasp  them; 
and  yet  we  have  the  feeling  that  some  plan  providing  for  the 
study  of  different  phases  of  a  subject  throughout  several 
grades  should  be  discovered  in  America.  This  would  afford 
the  opportunity  for  review  which  is  so  poorly  provided  for  in 
the  American  curriculum. 


110  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

Finally,  it  has  been  pointed  out  that  the  English  avoid  over- 
crowding of  the  curriculum  (1)  by  an  increase  of  recitation 
time,  (2)  by  employing  in  reading  books  texts  which  relate  to 
other  subjects,  (3)  by  a  free  omission  of  topics. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    CURRICULUM    OF    PUBLIC    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS   IN    CITIES 

OF  GERMANY. 

1.    Description  of  the  Elementary  Schools  of  Germany. 

The  German  people's  school  (Volksschule)  has  been  chosen 
for  this  study  as  representative  of  the  public  elementary 
schools  of  Germany.  As  a  sufficient  justification  for  this  se- 
lection let  us  state  that  5,236,826  school  children  were  enrolled 
in  the  Volksschule  of  Germany  in  1896,*  whereas  the  latest  re- 
ports show  that  only  5,670,870  children  are  enrolled  in  all  the 
elementary  and  secondary  schools  of  Germany. 

The  German  Empire  is  a  federation  of  twenty-six  states, 
composed  of  four  kingdoms,  six  grand  duchies,  five  duchies, 
seven  principalities,  three  free  cities  and  one  imperial  terri- 
tory. Each  of  these  twenty-six  states  has  a  separate  govern- 
ment. Each  state  maintains  its  own  school  system.  There  is 
no  national  system  of  education,  nor  is  there  a  national  law 
referring  to  education  in  the  states  as  a  whole.  Hence,  what- 
ever study  is  made  of  any  phase  of  education  in  Germany 
must  either  apply  to  each  state  separately  or  to  one  state  as  a 
type  of  the  others. 

It  has  been  claimed  by  most  writers  that  Prussia  is  repre- 
sentative of  the  entire  twenty-six  states.  This  opinion,  in  the 
main,  will  receive  substantiation  in  the  following  pages,  so  far 
as  the  subjects  of  instruction  are  concerned.  A  brief  account 
of  the  Prussian  plan  of  regulating  the  course  of  study  follows. 

*Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1899-1900,  p.  769. 

Ill 


112  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

In  Prussia  the  State  exercises  complete  control  in  educa- 
tional affairs.  There  are  no  private  schools  in  the  sense  that 
any  school  is  free  from  governmental  inspection  and  control. 
Both  the  selection  of  subjects  taught  and  the  certification  of 
teachers  are  regulated  by  the  central  authority  at  Berlin.* 
Control  in  educational  affairs  is  vested  by  the  king  of  Prus- 
sia in  the  Minister  of  Education,  whose  official  title  is  "Min- 
ister of  Ecclesiastical,  Educational  and  Medical  Affairs." 
He  is  a  member  of  the  King's  Cabinet  and  possesses  all 
the  powers  pertaining  to  a  Cabinet  officer.  The  will  of  the 
Minister  is  executed  through  four  sets  of  school  boards,  whose 
executive  and  territorial  authority  decreases  according  to  the 
order  here  named.  The  kingdom  is  divided  (1)  into  thirteen 
provinces,  each  with  its  respective  school  board  appointed  by 
the  Minister.  These  provinces  are  comparable  in  some  respects 
to  our  States.  (2)  The  thirteen  provinces  are  each  divided  into 
thirty-six  counties  (Regierungen)  with  their  respective  school 
boards  appointed  in  part  by  the  king  and  in  part  by  the  pro- 
vincial school  boards.  (3)  The  counties  are  further  divided 
into  large  townships,  or  districts  (Kreis),  comparable  to  our 
townships.  Each  township  also  has  its  school  board.  Each 
township  school  board  appoints  a  special  school  committee  for 
each  school  within  its  territory. 

The  course  of  study  for  the  elementary  schools  of  Prussia, 
as  is  true  in  all  the  German  schools,  is  prescribed  in  outline  by 
the  Minister  of  Education  and  his  colaborers  on  behalf  of  the 
State.  It  is  interpreted  and  adapted  in  accordance  with  this 
outline  by  the  county  (Regierung)  school  board,  which  is  prac- 
tically appointed  by  the  central  government,  and  whose  terri- 
tory frequently  includes  nearly  a  million  inhabitants.  Neither 
the  township  (Kreis)  nor  the  local  school  board  has  any  choice 
in  the  selection  of  subjects  of  instruction  or  in  the  selection  of 

*  "The  Making  of  Citizens,"  Hughes,  p.  67. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  113 


text  books  for  their  children.*  Approximately  the  same  bu- 
reaucratic system  exists  in  all  the  German  States  as  in  this  of 
Prussia. 

TABLE  XLIV. — Showing  the  Number  of  Minutes  per  Week  devoted 
to  Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  the  Percentage  of  Total 
Time  given  to  Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools 
(Volksschulen)  of  Prussia. 


Divisions 
Age  of  Pupils 

Grade. 

Lower               Middle 
6-8                      8-11 

Higher 
11-14 

I.          II.        III.         IV. 

V.       VI.       VII. 

VIII. 

Pet 

1  Religion 

240  |      240  |      240  |      240  |      240 

240 

240|      240|14.5 

6  Language1 

660  |      660  |      480  j      480  |      480 

480 

480)      480  |  32 

8  Arithmetic           |      240  1      240 

240 

240  1      240  1      240  1      240  1      240 

14.5 

9  Geography 
10  History    & 
12  Object    Lessons 

360 

360 

360 

360 

360 

360 

16.4 

16  Gymnastics 

120 

120|      120|      120|      120|      120|      120 

120|    7.3 

17  Drawing 

120|      120|      120|      120)      120|      120|    5.9 

18  Singing 

60|        60|      120|      120|      120|      120 

120|      120|    6.4 

20  Handwork  for 
Girls 

(120) 

(120) 

(120) 

(120) 

(120) 

(120) 

(120) 

(120) 

(7.3) 

Geometry 

120|      120|      120 

5.5 

Total 

1320|    1320|    1680|    1680|    1680|    1800|    1800|    1800| 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each   Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1   Religion 

18 

18 

14.  3|     14.3]     14.  3|     13.3|     13.3|     13.3| 

6  Language 

50 

50 

28.6|     28.6|     28.6|     26.6|     26.6J     26.6 

8  Arithmetic 

18 

18 

14.  3|     14.3|     14.3|     13.3|     13.3 

13.3 

9  Geography,  etc. 

21.5  1     21.5|     20.5 

20 

20 

20 

16  Gymnastics 

9 

JL 
« 

7.2|       7.2J       7.2 

6.7         6.7 

6.7 

17   Drawing 

7.2|      7.2|      7.'2       6.7|      6.7 

6.7 

16  Singing 

4.5        4.5|       7.2|       7.2|       7.2|       6.7 

677 

6.7 

20  Handwork 

(9    ) 

(9    )|  (7.2)|  (7.2)|  (7.2)|  (6.7) 

(6.7) 

(ti.7) 

Geometry 

1 

1            1 

6.7|       6.7|       67T 

1  Includes  reading,  writing,  literature,  etc. 

Table  XLIV.  shows  the  subjects  prescribed  by  the  Minister 
of  Education  in  Prussia  for  schools  with  more  than  one 
teacher.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  subjects  are  arranged  in 
three  divisions,  suitable  for  children  from  six  to  eight  years  of 
age,  from  eight  to  eleven,  from  eleven  to  fourteen.  The  eight 
years  of  compulsory  attendance  are  thus  provided  for.  This 

*  "The  German  School  System,"  Seeley,  p.  63. 


114  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

division  of  subjects  and  time  allotments  must  be  adhered  to  re- 
gardless of  the  number  of  teachers. 

A  course  is  provided,  however,  for  a  one  teacher  (or  class) 
school.  It  differs  from  the  other  one  in  assigning  slightly  more 
time  to  religion,  language  and  arithmetic,  and  in  omitting  all 
the  other  studies,  except  singing,  from  the  lowest  division. 

When  a  school  has  four  teachers,  the  law  requires  that  the 
middle  division  be  further  divided  into  two  sections  and  that 
one  teacher  be  given  charge  of  each  section,  thereby  placing 
emphasis  upon  the  importance  of  the  middle  division  to  the 
neglect  of  the  lower  and  upper.  This  is  contrary  to  the  prac- 
tice in  France,  where  the  kindergarten  is  better  known  and  in 
more  demand  than  in  Germany.  If  a  German  school  has  six 
teachers,  two  are  given  to  each  division  of  the  school. 

In  Table  XLIV.  and  those  that  follow,  the  parenthesis  is 
used  in  two  ways:  first,  to  show  that  the  minutes  thus  in- 
closed are  devoted  to  a  recitation  for  girls,  which  is  held  dur- 
ing the  same  time  that  some  other  subject  is  being  recited  by 
the  boys;  second,  when  a  cypher  is  thus  enclosed,  to  indicate 
that  such  a  subject  in  that  grade  is  not  required  of  girls. 

2.    Length  of  School  Life  and  the  School  Knowledge  of  the 
German  Child. 

The  element  of  TIME  in  the  German  elementary  schools  is 
regulated  by  the  State  with  as  great  care  as  the  selection  of 
subjects.  In  Prussia  at  least  forty-five  weeks  of  school  attend- 
ance are  required  per  year.  This  gives  considerably  shorter 
vacations  than  in  America.  These  vacations  occur  at  different 
times — one  week  at  "Whitsuntide,  three  or  four  weeks  at  the 
"harvest  vacation,"  occurring  some  time  between  August  and 
October,  and  one  week  at  Christmas.  Usually  the  pupils  spend 
six  hours  in  school  each  day  in  the  week  except  Sunday, 
Wednesday  and  Saturday.  In  Prussia  the  school  hours  are 
either  from  eight  to  twelve  and  two  to  four,  or  from  eight  to 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  115 

twelve  and  one  to  three,  or  from  eight  to  two.  On  Wednesdays 
and  Saturdays  pupils  are  allowed  the  afternoons  for  holidays. 

If  we  add  to  these  regulations  as  to  time,  the  compulsory  ed- 
ucational requirements,  several  interesting  conclusions  should 
be  forced  upon  the  American  educator.  Education  is  compul- 
sory in  every  German  State.*  The  period  of  attendance  is 
almost  the  same  in  all  States.  In  Prussia  it  is  from  the  age 
of  six  to  fourteen;  in  Bavaria,  six  to  thirteen;  in  Wiirtem- 
berg,  seven  to  fourteen ;  in  Saxony,  six  to  fourteen ;  in  Baden, 
six  to  fourteen. 

It  may,  therefore,  be  said  that  German  children  are  required 
by  law  to  be  in  school  more  years  during  their  lives,  more 
weeks  during  a  year,  more  days  during  a  week,  more  hours 
during  a  week  and  more  hours  during  a  day  than  American 
children.  Table  XLIV.  shows  that  this  is  particularly  true  of 
Prussia.  It  appears  that  Prussia  devotes  from  two  to  three 
hours  more  a  week  to  recitation  than  do  the  other  German 
provinces.  Table  LV.  corroborates  this,  where  the  average 
recitation  time  for  the  ten  cities  distributed  over  the  Empire 
is  seen  to  be  less  than  it  is  for  Prussia,  as  shown  in  Table 
XLIV.  The  cities  usually,  however,  increase  the  time  pre- 
scribed by  their  respective  governments. 

Since  there  are  more  school  children  in  Prussia  than  in  all 
the  rest  of  the  German  Empire,  if  the  data  were  available  it 
would  be  interesting  to  make  a  comparison  between  the  aver- 
age weekly  recitation  time  in  the  ten  American  cities  shown  in 
Table  XII.  and  ten  Prussian  cities  of  equal  size.  But  in  the 
absence  of  such  data,  we  may,  by  making  due  allowance,  com- 
pare the  Prussian  Table  XLIV.,  which  shows  the  minimum 
time  allotment  for  schools  of  the  kingdom,  with  Table  XII., 
which  probably  shows  an  average  time  allotment  for  American 
schools.  It  is  seen  that  the  Prussian  child  is  in  school  1635 
minutes  per  week  on  the  average,  and  that  the  American  child 

•  "The  German  School  System,"  Seelcy,  p.  239. 


116  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

is  in  school  on  an  average  only  1312  minutes  per  week,  a  dif- 
ference of  five  hours  and  twenty-five  minutes. 

Objection  is  raised  to  such  comparison  that  four  hours  of 
the  Prussian  weekly  assignment  are  given  to  the  teaching  of  re- 
ligion, which  is  not  included  in  the  American  curriculum.  This 
objection,  of  course,  is  not  altogether  valid,  for  the  fact  still  re- 
mains, so  far  as  the  Prussian  child  is  concerned,  that  he  is  in 
recitation  nearly  a  school  day  more  a  week  than  his  American 
cousin,  which,  if  it  be  questionable  from  a  physiological  point 
of  view,  is  quite  as  detrimental  if  he  is  reciting  in  religion  as 
if  he  were  reciting  in  any  other  subject.  In  the  second  place, 
it  is  true  to  some  degree  at  least  that  this  study,  as  conducted 
by  the  Germans,  diminishes  the  time  necessary  for  other 
studies,  such  as  reading.  But  if  the  four  hours  per  week  spent 
in  reciting  this  subject  were  excluded,  the  Prussian  child 
would  still  be  in  school  one  hour  and  twenty-three  minutes 
per  week  more  than  the  American. 

By  comparison  of  the  average  weekly  school  time  in  the  ten 
German  cities  with  that  in  the  ten  American  cities  (see  Tables 
LV.  and  XII.)  the  difference  in  minutes  per  week  by  grades  is 
found  to  be  as  follows : 

Grades I.     II.     III.     IV.    V.    VI.    VII.    VIII. 

Minutes  ....  84    13    217    205    417    378     483      535 

This  shows  an  increase  of  the  German  over  the  American  al- 
lotments except  in  the  first  grade.  In  brief,  the  average  in- 
crease for  the  ten  German  cities  is  four  hours  and  a  half  a 
week,  the  equivalent  of  an  American  school  day,  which  cor- 
roborates the  comparison  made  above  between  the  curriculum 
prescribed  by  the  central  authority  in  Prussia  and  that  found 
to  be  the  average  in  the  ten  American  cities.  Moreover,  if  we 
eliminate  religion  as  a  topic  consuming  recitation  time  in  Ger- 
many and  likewise  the  opening  exercises  in  America,  the  Ger- 
man child  still  attends  school  an  hour  and  a  half  more  per 
week. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  117 

The  foregoing  time  requirements  and  distinctions  are  abso- 
lutely essential  to  an  adequate  comprehension  of  the  course  of 
study  in  the  elementary  schools  of  Germany. 

Furthermore,  the  hours  per  week  spent  in  recitation  by  the 
German  child  are  so  interesting  in  their  implications  that  they 
should  be  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  American  educator. 
Is  it  unhygienic  conditions,  or  very  long  lessons,  or  the  strain 
of  lengthy  recitation  periods,  or  physical  fatigue  resulting 
from  the  excessive  length  of  the  daily  school  period,  which  are 
responsible  for  the  complaint  of  the  American  parents  that 
their  children  are  being  overworked  in  school  ?  Or  can  it  be 
that  the  superfluous  number  of  subjects  and  of  topics,  or  ennui 
resulting  from  the  uninteresting  methods  of  the  teacher,  are 
accountable  for  the  complaints  ?  This  study  does  not  pretend 
to  answer  all  these  questions.  If  the  physical  exhaustion  of 
the  American  child  is  due  to  the  length  of  the  recitation  period 
(in  Germany  the  recitation  period  is  from  forty  to  sixty  min- 
utes), or  to  the  length  of  the  daily,  weekly  or  annual  school 
sessions,  then  one  of  two  things  is  certain, — either  the  Ger- 
mans are  slowly  murdering  their  children  in  the  schools,  or  the 
German  child  is  much  stronger  physically  than  the  American 
child. 

It  is  asserted  by  men  who  have  been  educated  in  the  German 
schools  that  they  are  not  physically  wrecked  by  the  process.* 

In  fact,  there  has  been  no  sign  in  recent  years  pointing  to 
the  decay  of  the  vitality  of  the  German  race.  On  the  other 
hand,  no  one  would  readily  assent  to  the  proposition  that  the 
German  child  is  naturally  stronger  than  the  American  child ; 
and  we  will  abandon  as  ludicrous  the  contention  that  the  pupil 
to  answer  all  these  questions.  If  the  physical  exhaustion  of 
climatic  differences. 

Therefore,  although  the  evidence  is  not  conclusive  without 

*  "School  Reform,"  by  Dr.  Hugo  Munsterberg,  in  Atlantic  Monthly,  May, 
1JOU. 


118  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

investigating  numerous  other  contingencies,  the  weekly  time 
allotments  in  the  German  schools  seem  to  suggest  that  the 
American  child  could  spend  an  hour  more  a  day  in  school  if  it 
were  necessary,  without  physical  detriment. 

3.    Overcrowding. 

OVERCROWDING  in  the  course  of  study  is  the  problem  in 
America  for  which  we  are  diligently  seeking  a  solution;  but 
the  overcrowding  of  the  school  itself  throughout  Germany, 
and  not  of  the  curriculum,  is  one  of  the  serious  problems 
which  has  affected  the  course  of  study  in  many  ways.  It  un- 
doubtedly accounts  for  the  restriction  of  the  course  of 
study  to  a  few  subjects  in  order  to  save  time.  It  has  its  ef- 
fect also  in  ironclad  regulation  by  the  central  authority  of  the 
time  devoted  to  the  respective  subjects.  In  a  state  in  which 
many  of  the  teachers  have  twice  as  many  pupils  as  they  are 
able  to  instruct,  no  risks  can  be  taken  in  allowing  the  teachers 
to  choose  what  subjects  shall  receive  special  emphasis.  All 
sorts  of  devices  have  been  resorted  to  in  order  to  overcome  the 
evil  of  overcrowded  classes.  The  popular  "  Simple  "  school 
is  an  attempt  to  decrease  the  size  of  the  classes  by  allowing 
half  the  children  to  attend  in  the  forenoon  and  half  in  the  af- 
ternoon. But  while  it  serves  to  decrease  the  size  of  the  classes, 
it  is  questionable  if  the  loss  of  the  time  spent  in  school  does 
not  offset  this  gain. 

In  Prussia  the  maximum  number  of  pupils  allotted  one 
teacher  by  law  is  eighty  for  a  one  class  (one  teacher)  school, 
and  seventy  for  each  teacher  in  schools  where  there  are  more 
than  one  teacher.*  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  class 
assigned  to  one  teacher  is  often  much  larger  than  this  in 
Prussia.  "In  1891  it  was  reported  that  as  many  as  1,309,175 
children  were  taught  in  classes  (grades)  numbering  between 

•Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects.  Michael  E.  Sadler,  Vol.  IX.,  p. 
336. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  119 

eighty-one  and  one  hundred  children  in  the  country  and  sev- 
enty-one to  ninety  in  the  town  schools. "  *  It  is,  therefore,  not 
to  be  wondered  at  that  the  curriculum  is  in  such  a  static  condi- 
tion and  that  individual  variation  is  impossible.  The  excessive 
overcrowding  of  the  schools  necessitates  uniformity  in  order  to 
secure  the  least  possible  loss  of  time. 

And  yet,  with  all  this  overcrowding  of  pupils  in  schools  not 
sufficiently  staffed  to  accommodate  them,  in  schools  where  a 
teacher  is  frequently  given  twice  as  many  pupils  as  the  Ameri- 
can teacher,  you  hear  no  complaint  from  Germany  of  an  over- 
crowded time  table.  How  is  this  to  be  explained  ? 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  not  true,  as  many  suppose,  that  the 
public  elementary  school  of  Germany  attempts  to  teach  as 
many  subjects  as  are  attempted  in  the  American  elementary 
school.  Reference  to  Tables  I.  and  XLIV.  will  show  that  there 
are  many  subjects  taught  in  some  schools  of  America,  which 
are  not  prescribed  for  any  of  the  schools  of  Prussia,  such  as 
manual  training,  cooking  and  modern  languages.  May  it  not 
be  that  it  is  from  these  few  American  cities,  which  have  volun- 
tarily overloaded  the  children  of  the  public  schools,  that  much 
of  the  complaint  comes  ? 

In  the  next  place,  if  any  of  the  ten  Germany  cities  are  com- 
pared with  any  of  the  American,  it  will  be  found  that  there  are 
less  time  allotments  made  in  the  former  than  in  the  latter,  even 
though  nearly  all  the  subjects  taught  in  the  one  are  found  in 
the  other.  If  the  curriculum  of  New  York  City  (Table  II.)  is 
compared  with  that  of  Berlin  (Table  XLV.)  it  will  be  seen 
that  there  are  many  more  allotments  to  topics  on  the  New  York 
table.  An  examination  of  the  syllabi  of  the  two  cities  shows  a 
remarkable  difference  in  the  number  of  topics  in  each  subject. 
As  a  consequence,  there  is  less  order  in  the  curriculum  with  us 
and  more  restless  commotion  among  the  teachers  and  pupils. 
The  New  York  City  teacher  and  pupil  are  both  of  them  kept 
*  "The  Making  of  Citizens,"  Hughes,  p.  81. 


120  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

nervous  by  the  number  of  recitations  which  must  be  accom- 
plished each  week,  on  account  of  the  presence  on  the  time  table 
of  such  a  large  number  of  topics. 

It  is  the  presence  of  time  assignments  to  so  many  topics 
which  gives  both  the  appearance  and  the  results  of  an  over- 
crowded curriculum.  The  nervous  strain  of  divided  attention 
is  probably  a  factor  in  the  widespread  complaint  of  the  over- 
crowding in  our  elementary  curriculum. 

To  throw  further  light  upon  this  matter,  a  list  of  topics 
taught  in  several  subjects,  as  outlined  in  the  syllabus  now  in 
operation  in  the  Berlin  public  elementary  schools,  is  here 
given.  In  ARITHMETIC  the  topics  in  the  respective  grades 
are  as  follows : 

Grade  I.— Counting,  addition,  subtraction. 

Grade  II. — Counting,  addition,  subtraction,  multiplication, 
division,  fractions. 

Grade  III. — Continue  work  of  Grade  II. 

Grade  IV. — Continue  work  of  Grade  III.  and  take  factoring. 

Grade  V. — The  four  fundamental  operations ;  fractions,  de- 
nominate numbers,  and  practical  problems. 

Grade  VI. — The  same  as  in  Grade  V.,  and  decimal  frac- 
tions. 

Grade  VII. — The  four  fundamental  operations ;  also  propor- 
tion, exchange,  discount,  business  forms  and  insurance. 

Grade  VIII. — The  same  as  in  Grade  VII.,  except  that  prac- 
tical problems  and  simple  algebraic  equations  are  substituted 
for  proportion. 

Table  XIV.  shows  that  there  is  no  such  agreement  upon  a 
few  well  ordered  topics  among  American  teachers  of  arith- 
metic. It  is  furthermore  noticeable  that  the  second  half  of  the 
ordinary  American  arithmetic  is  largely  neglected,  and  that 
when  taken  at  all  it  is  in  the  last  two  grades  only. 

In  the  German  schools  when  a  topic  in  HISTORY  is  chosen 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  121 

it  always  has  bearing  upon  German  history.  Thus  again  a 
great  loss  of  time  is  avoided.  History  begins  with  the  follow- 
ing topics: 

Grade  IV. — National  biography. 

Grade  V.— Review  biographies;  take  the  Reformation,  the 
Thirty  Years  War,  the  Crusades,  chivalry,  growth  of  towns, 
inventions,  discoveries,  and  the  founding  of  the  kingdom  of 
Prussia. 

Grade  VI. — National  biographies,  the  American  revolution, 
the  French  revolution,  the  Napoleonic  Empire,  analysis  of  the 
Prussian  government,  and  the  freedom  and  union  of  Italy. 

Grades  VII.  and  VIII. — The  history,  government  and  civili- 
zation of  Germany  and  Prussia. 

The  brevity  of  topics,  and  the  predominance  of  the  bio- 
graphical and  of  national  history  are  the  characteristics  of 
this  five  year  course  in  history.  When  we  add  to  this  the  fact 
that  the  outline  of  geography  is  governed  by  the  same  rule,  one 
can  begin  to  perceive  why  there  is  no  complaint  of  overcrowd- 
ing among  the  German  teachers.  In  the  syllabus  of  geography 
for  the  Berlin  schools,  there  is  no  mention  of  the  geography  of 
America.  With  but  one  exception,  the  geography  of  Germany 
is  the  only  topic  occurring  in  two  grades,  for  the  German 
method  is  to  settle  upon  that  which  is  at  the  same  time  nearest 
and  most  important  to  the  child  and  to  omit  the  rest.  They 
are  willing  to  do  what  we  are  not,  viz.,  omit  the  unnecessary, 
and  to  recognize  that  all  knowledge  is  not  co-ordinate  and  of 
equal  value. 

In  harmony  with  this  same  method  of  organically  relating 
the  matter  of  instruction  around  a  few  large  and  relatively  im- 
portant topics,  is  found  the  course  of  instruction  in 

RELIGION  FOR  PROTESTANT  SCHOOLS. 
Grade  I. — Nine  scenes  from  the  early  life  of  Christ. 


122  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

Grade  II. — (1)  The  story  of  two  Old  Testament  patriarchs 
related  to  Christ;  (2)  eight  scenes  from  the  later  life  of 
Christ. 

Grade  III.— (1)  Moses;  (2)  David;  (3)  Peter. 

Grade  IV.— (1)  The  patriarchs;  (2)  primitive  life;  (3) 
the  wanderings  of  Israel;  (4)  the  Judges. 

Grade  V. — (1)  The  history  of  the  growth  of  Israel  as 
illustrated  by  biographies;  (2)  study  and  memorizing  of 
Psalms;  (3)  catechism;  (4)  church  history. 

Grade  VI. — The  same  as  Grade  V.,  also  (1)  parables;  (2) 
Sermon  on  the  Mount;  (3)  study  of  the  life  of  Jesus. 

Grade  VII. — The  same  as  in  Grade  V.,  also  memorizing 
select  passages. 

Grade  VIII. — The  same  as  in  Grade  VII. 

Church  songs  are  memorized  and  learned  in  all  grades. 

Perhaps  enough  of  the  analyzed  syllabus  of  the  Berlin 
schools  has  been  given  to  illustrate  the  methods  by  which 
relief  of  overcrowding  is  accomplished  in  the  German  schools, 
through  organization  of  the  subject  matter  by  higher  authori- 
ties. We  have  already  shown  that  the  German  teacher  and 
pupil  work  longer  than  we  do  in  America.  From  the  vast 
amount  of  home  work  prescribed  for  the  child,  in  this  syllabus, 
one  would  gather  that  the  pupil  also  works  harder  than  do 
our  pupils. 

The  child  is  saved  from  overwork  by  the  delay  of  subjects 
until  he  is  capable  of  handling  them,  and  by  concentrated 
study  of  one  subject.  Those  definitions  and  topics  regarding 
the  solar  system,  etc.,  in  geography  appear  much  later  in 
the  Berlin  curriculum  than  in  ours.  The  syllabus  orders 
that  one  primer  shall  last  a  grade  one  year.  In  America  it 
sometimes  takes  a  half  a  dozen  to  supply  pictures  with  which 
the  teacher  "interests"  the  children  for  that  length  of  time. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  123 

4.     Uniformity. 

But  perhaps  after  all  the  strongest  influence  against  over- 
crowding in  Germany  is  the  determination  of  the  German 
educators  to  organize  and  systematize  the  material  of  instruc- 
tion, so  as  to  avoid  waste  at  every  turn.  The  goal  is  Germany, 
and  the  German  military  citizen.  Whether  it  is  good  or  bad, 
it  is  nevertheless  a  definite  end  of  education,  and  the  educator 
has  no  scruples  about  omitting  that  which  is  irrelevant  to  his 
purpose.  He  has  an  end  to  attain  and  a  standard  of  omissions, 
neither  of  which  do  we  seem  to  possess  in  the  United  States. 

Perhaps  no  better  illustration  of  the  uniformity  of  the 
German  system  can  be  given  than  will  be  seen  when  the 
average  percentage  of  total  time  devoted  to  each  subject  in 
the  general  laws  prescribed  by  the  central  government  of 
Prussia  (see  Table  XLIV.)  is  compared  with  the  actual 
practice  as  shown  in  the  average  percentages  of  total  time 
allotted  to  each  subject  in  ten  progressive  cities  of  the  different 
states  (Table  LVL).  In  Table  XLIV.  religion  occupies 
14.5  per  cent  of  total  recitation  time,  language  32  per  cent, 
arithmetic  14.5  per  cent.  In  Table  LVI.  religion  occupies  14 
per  cent,  language  34.2  per  cent,  arithmetic  17.2  per  cent. 
This  uniformity  is  seen  by  a  more  just  comparison  if  the 
percentages  of  the  state  assignments  are  compared  individu- 
ally with  the  specific  cities  which  are  situated  within  that 
state.  As  an  example,  religion  in  the  Prussian  "regulation" 
(Table  XLIV.)  receives  14.5  per  cent  of  the  total  time  allot- 
ment; Table  LVI.  shows  that  the  percentages  for  this  subject 
for  the  cities  within  that  kingdom  are  as  follows :  Berlin,  13.3 
per  cent ;  Konigsberg,  14.7  percent ;  Gottingen,  13.4  per  cent ; 
Wiesbaden,  13.9  per  cent.  In  brief,  there  is  scarcely  more 
than  a  variation  of  one  per  cent  from  the  State  requirement. 
Calculations  as  to  other  subjects  may  be  made  from  the  same 
tables  to  corroborate  this  conclusion  as  to  the  uniformity  in 
different  cities. 


124  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  while  a  city  will 
rarely  give  less  weekly  recitation  time  than  is  prescribed  in 
the  State  law,  yet  sometimes  it  will  distribute  the  time  some- 
what differently  in  order  to  allow  a  larger  portion  of  time  to 
subjects  of  more  importance  to  the  environment  of  the  par- 
ticular city.  Munich  and  Wiirtzberg  devote  less  time  to 
language  than  is  prescribed  in  the  law  for  Bavaria,  but  these 
two  cities  devote  more  time  to  arithmetic  than  any  other 
cities  of  the  ten.  This  suggests  also  that  the  general  laws  are 
sometimes  more  flexible  than  we  are  accustomed  to  think. 
By  special  act  of  legislature,  Bavaria  and  some  other  states 
frequently  allow  certain  provinces  to  differentiate  their  cur- 
ricula. 

It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  there  are  advantages  in  this 
complete  uniformity  in  the  courses  of  study.  In  America  it  is 
always  easier  to  get  a  new  subject  introduced  into  the  curricu- 
lum than  it  is  to  get  it  out.  Perhaps  such  a  system  as  the 
German,  prescribing  and  controlling  its  courses  of  study  from 
one  central  source,  might  have  kept  our  curriculum  free  from 
its  present  inflation  had  it  been  in  vogue  in  America  some 
years  ago.  That  educators  of  other  countries  recognize  this 
virtue  in  the  German  and  French  bureaucratic  system  may 
be  seen  from  the  following  recent  and  most  concise  utterance 
published  by  the  School  Management  Committee  of  the  School 
Board  of  London,*  which  appears  to  give  a  fair  summary  of 
the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  such  uniformity.  In 
speaking  of  the  indifference  of  the  English  government  to  the 
lack  of  uniformity  in  the  subjects  of  instruction  in  the  ele- 
mentary schools  of  London,  the  Committee  remarks : 

"There  is  no  provision  for  a  common  standard  to  be  ob- 
tained in  the  subjects  in  different  schools,  and,  with  very  slight 
exception,  there  is  no  allotment  of  the  time  to  be  given  to  the 
various  subjects  of  instruction.  Nothing  surprises  a  German 

•Page  17  of  the  Report  for  1902. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  125 

or  a  Frenchman  more  than  to  learn  that  in  our  elementary 
schools  the  relative  time  and  attention  to  be  given  the  various 
subjects  of  instruction  is  practically  within  the  power  of  the 
Head  Teacher ;  and  there  is  but  little  doubt  that  many  educa- 
tional experts  in  both  France  and  Germany  today  are  desirous 
of  relaxing  the  rigidity  of  their  systems.  But,  if  iron-bound 
time-table  regulations  issued  by  central  authority  have  disad- 
vantages, there  is  one  marked  advantage  which  such  a  method 
possesses.  If  official  allotment  of  time  prevails,  it  is  not  possi- 
ble, without  due  consideration,  to  introduce  new  subjects  and 
trust  to  the  manipulative  dexterity  of  the  teacher  to  some- 
how get  them  included  in  an  already  well-filled  time-table." 

This  does,  however,  omit  one  or  two  suggestions  which  might 
be  of  interest  to  the  American  educator.  It  would  seem  to 
be  true  that  education  in  Germany  is  more  of  a  national  con- 
sideration than  with  us.  All  the  pedagogical  expressions 
which  reach  us  indicate  a  more  deep-felt  interest  and  a  more 
thorough  knowledge  of  actual  educational  policy  and  practice 
among  the  leaders,  the  statesmen  and  the  educators  among  the 
Germans,  than  is  found  among  the  English  or  the  Americans. 
As  a  system  for  the  training  of  a  large  group  of  national 
educational  experts,  this  German  uniform  system  has  no 
equal  among  the  civilized  people  of  the  world,  unless  it  be  in 
France.  From  the  first  day  the  child  enters  the  Volksschule, 
both  by  the  arrangement  of  subject  matter  in  the  curriculum 
and  by  the  arrangement  of  the  topics  within  each  subject,  his 
attention  is  directed  towards  the  central  authority  and  the 
national  welfare.  In  consequence,  he  grows  up  to  respect 
the  national  government.  When  he  reaches  manhood,  he  is 
quite  willing  as  a  citizen  to  contribute  to  the  perfection  of  the 
organization  established  by  the  State  which  to  his  mind  has 
proven  its  efficiency  in  the  intellectual  and  moral  training  of 
the  children  of  the  Empire. 

Another  advantage  of  the  uniform  system  is  brought  up 


126  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  XLV. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted 
to  Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  the  Percentage  of  Total 
Time  given  to  Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools 
of  Berlin,  Prussia. 


Grade.                   I.         IL       III.        IV.       V.       VI.       VII.    VIII.    Pet 

1  Religion 

180 

180 

180  |      240|      240 

240 

240 

240|13.3 

3  Writing 

120 

120  |      120 

120 

60 

60 

60|  5 

ti  Language 

480 

420 

420  |      360 

360 

360 

U60 

360  j  23.8 

8  Arithmetic 

240 

240 

240 

240 

240 

240 

(120) 
240 

(120) 
240 

14.6 

Geometry 

(0) 
180 

(WO) 
180 

(120) 
180 

4 

9   Geography 

120 

120 

120|      120)      120|    4.5 

10  History 

120 

120 

120|      120J      120J   4.5 

12  Object    Lessons 

120 

120 

120 

14  Nature   Study 

120 

120 

240 

(180) 
240 

180 

9.6 

16  Physical 
Training 

120 

120 

(60) 
120 

120 

120 

120 

120 

120 

7.3 

17  Drawing 

60 

(60) 
120 

120 

120 

120 

120 

120 

6 

18  Singing 

00 

60 

120|      120|      120 

120 

120 

120|    6.4 

20  Needle-work 

~j  (120)  |<120)  |(120) 

(180) 

(240) 

(240)|(8     ) 

Total 

1200 

1320]    1440 

Iti.SII 

1G80|    1920|    1920|    1920| 

language  includes  composition,  grammar,  literature,  dictation,  reading 
and  recitation  of  poetry  in  all  tables  of  German  schools,  except  when  other- 
wise noted. 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each   Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1   Religion            |    15 

13.5 

12.5 

14.:-! 

14.3 

12.5 

12.5 

12.5 

o  Writing 

9 

8.3 

7.1 

7.1 

3.1 

3.1 

3.1 

0  Language 

40 

33 

30 

21.5 

21.5 

18.3 

18.3 

18.3 

8  Arithmetic 

20 

18 

16.6 

14.3 

14.3 

12.5 

12.5 

12.5 

Geometry 

1 

9.3 

9.3 

9.3 

9  Geography 

7.1 

7.1 

6.25 

6.25  1       6.25 

10  liistory 

7.1 

7.1 

6.25 

6.25  1       6.25 

12  Object 
Lessons,  etc. 

10 

9 

8.3 

7.1 

7.1 

12.5 

12.5 

9.3 

16  Physical 
Training 

10 

9 

8.3 

7.1 

7.1 

6.25 

6.25 

6.25 

17   Drawing 

4.5 

8.3 

7.1 

7.1 

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6.25 

ti.L'5 

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o 

4.5 

8.3 

7.1 

7.1 

6.25  1       6.25 

6.25 

20  Needle-work 

(8.3)|  (7.1) 

(7.1)|  (9.3)|  (12.5)!  (1^-5  > 

'Language  includes  composition,  grammar,  literature,  dictation,  reading 
and  recitation  of  poetry  In  all  tables  of  German  schools,  except  when  other- 
wise noted. 

for  our  consideration  when  we  remember  that  in  America,  if 
a  pupil  is  so  unfortunate  as  to  move  from  one  State  to  another, 
or  even  from  one  city  to  another  in  the  same  State,  it  generally 
means  an  immense  loss  of  time  and  frequently  discontinuance 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  127 


TABLE  XLVI. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted 
to  Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  the  Percentage  of  Total 
Time  given  to  Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools 
of  Konigsburg,  Prussia. 


Grade. 


I. 


II. 


III. 


IV. 


V. 


VI. 


Pet. 


1   Religion 

240    |     240 

240 

240 

240 

240        |14.7 

6  Language 

660 

660 

480 

480 

480 

480        1  32.1 

8  Arithmetic 

240 

240 

240 

240 

240 

240        1  14.7 

Geometry 

120(0) 

120(0)1(3.67) 

9  Geography 

120 

120 

120 

120 

L5.5 

10  History 

120 

120 

120 

120 

5.5 

14  Nature  Study 

120 

120 

120 

120 

5.5 

16  Gymnastics 

120(0) 

120(0) 

120(0) 

120(0)  j   5.5 

17  Drawing 

60 

;20 

120 

120 

120 

6 

18  Singing 

60 

60 

120 

120 

120 

120 

6.88 

20  Needle-work 

(240) 

(240) 

(240) 

(240) 

Total 

1200    1  1260 

1680 
(1800) 

1680 
(1800) 

1800 

1800 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1  Religion 

20.1 

19.1 

14.3 

14.3 

13.4 

13.4 

6  Language 

55.1 

52.4 

28.6 

28.6 

26.7 

26.7 

8  Arithmetic 

20.1 

19.1 

14.3 

14.3 

13.4 

13.4 

Geometry 

6.7 

6.7 

9  Geography 

7.2 

7.2 

6.67 

6.67 

10  History 

7.2 

7.2 

6.67 

6.67 

14  Nature  Study 

7.2 

7.2 

6.67 

6.67 

16  Gymnastics 

7.2 

7.2 

6.67 

6.6? 

17  Drawing 

4.8 

7.2 

7.2 

6.67 

6.67 

18  Singing 

5 

4.8 

7.2 

7.2 

6.67 

6.67 

20  Needle-work 

(13.7) 

(13.7) 

(13.7) 

(13.7) 

of  his  education.  The  child  going  from  the  fifth  grade  in 
the  schools  of  one  town  is  as  likely  when  he  enters  the  next 
town  to  be  placed  in  the  fourth  or  sixth  grade  as  in  the 
fifth.  No  such  thing  is  known  in  Germany.  "While  each 
German  state  manages  its  own  affairs  and  has  its  own  pecul- 
iarities, all  agree  upon  the  general  educational  policy.  There- 
fore, work,  whether  done  in  the  common  school,  the  teachers' 
seminary,  the  gymnasium  or  the  University  of  the  German 
state,  is  fully  recognized  in  all  the  other  states  throughout 
the  Empire,  and  children  or  students  may  change  their  school 
without  loss  of  time. ' '  *  Without  a  bureaucratic  system  this 

•  "The  German  School  System,"  Seeley,  p.  243. 


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TABLE  XLIX.  —  Minutes  of 
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Grade. 

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0  Language 

8  Arithmetic 

Geometry 

s>  Geograpny 
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TABLE  LI. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted 
to  Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  the  Percentage  of  Total 
Time  given  to  Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools 
of  Munich,  Bavaria. 


Grade.            I.          11.          III.         IV.         V.          VI.         VII.      Pet. 

1   Religion 

120   |      120 

180 

180 

180 

180 

x!20 

9.73 

6  Language 

680 

720 

((>(>()) 
720 

(600) 
720 

480 

480 

480 

38.5 

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360 

360 

360 

360 

360 

360 

360 

22.8 

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(60) 
90 

90 

(180) 
120 

3.8 

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(60) 
90 

90 

120 

3.8 

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sons 

120 

120 

120 

(180) 
240 

(180) 
240 

5.41 

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120 

120 

120 

120 

120 

120 

120 

7.57 

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1 

240 

180 

180 

5.4 

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60 

60 

60 

60 

60 

60 

60 

3.8 

20  Needle-work 

(120)|    (1J50)|    (180) 

(180)|    (240) 

"080, 

(24U) 

(11.1) 

Total 

1260 

i;{so 

1560 

1560 

1740 

1800 

1800 

Total                    (1380)|(1800) 

(1620)|(1620) 

1 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each   Subject  in  Each 
Grade  per  Week. 


1  Religion 

9.6   |       8.7 

11.6 

11.6 

10.4 

10 

6.7    | 

6  Language 

47.6 

52.2 

46.2    |     46.2 

27.6 

27.1 

27.1 

8  Arlthmeti- 

28.6 

26.1 

23.1    |     23.1 

20.7 

20 

20 

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1               1 

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5       |       6.7 

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1 

5.2 

5 

6.7 

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7.7 

7.7 

6.9 

13.4 

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9.6   |       8.7 

7.7    |       7.7 

6.9 

6.7 

6.7 

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4.8 

4 

3.9 

3.9 

3.5 

3.34 

3.34 

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(8.7)|     (8)     |  (11.1) 

(11.1) 

(13.8)|  (10) 

(13.4) 

could  not  happen,  for  the  educational  experts  of  such  a  coun- 
try, acting  as  isolated  individuals,  would  never  agree  upon 
"the  general  educational  policy." 

5.     Wealth  and  Poverty  of  the  German  Curriculum. 

The  WEALTH  and  the  POVERTY  of  the  course  of  study  in 
the  Elementary  schools  of  Germany  may  be  approximately 
arrived  at  by  a  type  study  of  the  summaries  in  Tables  XLV.- 
LIV.  Before  beginning  this  study,  however,  a  few  explana- 
tions are  necessary.  It  will  be  seen  that  some  of  the  schools 
have  only  six  grades  and  others  only  seven,  although  eight 


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136  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  LV. — Showing  the  Average  Recitation  Time  in  Minutes  per 
Week  given  to  Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade  in  the  Ten  German 
Cities. 


Grade 


I. 


II.       III. 


IV. 


V. 


VI. 


VII.    VIII. 


1  Religion 

172 

199 

:.'u7 

234 

246 

240 

2X4 

218 

ti  Language1 

r.s.s 

603 

600 

507 

513 

501 

5X3 

472 

8  Arithmetic 

232 

282 

282 

282 

270 

270 

270 

255 

9  Geography 

58 

47 

113 

115 

111 

111 

134 

147 

10  History 

33 

60 

103 

103 

110 

120 

14  Nature  Study 

80 

60 

100 

140 

126 

111 

16  Gymnastics 

54 

36 

60 

108 

132 

132 

132 

125 

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12 

42 

54 

60 

120 

114 

137 

128 

18  Singing 

54 

54 

93 

99 

93 

93 

99 

96 

20  Handwork 

(96) 

(132) 

(222) 

1  234  1 

(258) 

(246) 

1  25S  I 

(278) 

Geometry 

18 

42 

72 

102 

112 

Total 

"T190 

1263 

1502 

1609 

1730 

1782 

1822 

1788 

Showing  the  Average  Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  given  to  Each 
Subject  in  Each  Grade  in  Ten  German  Cities. 


1  Religion 

14.5   |    15.8       13.8 

14.6 

14.2 

13.8 

13 

12.3 

6  Language 

49.4 

47.8       40 

35.3 

2!).  7 

28.2 

2<;.5 

26.5 

8  Arithmetic 

21.2 

22.3       18.7 

17.6 

15.6 

15.2 

15.2 

15.3 

9  Geography 

4.9 

3.7         7.5 

7.2 

6.4 

6.3 

7.4 

8.3 

10  History 

2.2         3.8 

6 

5.8 

6 

a 

14  Nature  Study 

|                    5.3         4 

5.8 

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(7.3)|    (9.3)1(13.6)1(13.5) 

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1  Language  includes  reading,  writing,  spelling,  literature  and  composition. 

years  of  compulsory  attendance  are  required  by  all  the  States 
except  Bavaria  (7)  and  Wurtemberg  (7).  Munich  and 
Wiirtzburg,  then,  fulfill  the  legal  requirement  by  establishing 
only  seven  grades.  But  in  the  Prussian  cities,  Konigsberg, 
Wiesbaden,  and  in  Hamburg,  compulsory  attendance  for  the 
extra  year  is  provided  for  by  adding  a  year  to  the  fifth  and 
sixth  grades  respectively,  if  the  school  is  a  six  grade  school, 
and  a  year  extra  to  the  seventh  grade  if  it  is  a  seven  grade 
school.*  This  has  been  included,  in  calculating  the  average 
recitation  time  and  the  average  percentage  of  total  time,  by 
repeating  the  fifth  and  sixth  grade  columns  in  the  six  grade 

•Stotzner,  p.  16. 


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138  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

schools  and  the  seventh  grade  column  in  the  seven  grade 
schools.  This  is  what  the  pupil  in  their  schools  actually  does. 

There  is  a  rigidity  about  a  course  of  study  which  provides 
the  same  time  allotments  year  after  year  in  the  child's  school 
life.  This  is  the  case  with  all  the  German  schools,  but  most 
especially  with  those  which  repeat  the  previous  year's  allot- 
ments, as  in  the  six  and  seven  grade  schools  with  eight  year 
compulsory  requirements.  This  makes  one  suspect  the  curric- 
ulum of  considerable  poverty  and  mechanical  dryness.  At 
the  very  outset  one  is  impressed  by  the  fact  that  there  are 
actually  fewer  subjects  of  instruction  in  the  German  program 
than  are  found  in  those  of  England,  France  or  America. 
Michael  E.  Sadler  recently  called  attention  to  this  difference 
development,  while  in  America  it  is  especially  in  the  primary 
education  which  has  shown  the  least  capacity  for  fruitful 
development,  while  in  America  it  is  especially  in  the  primary 
school  that  the  keenest  sensitiveness  to  suggestion,  and  the 
greatest  progress! veness  have  been  found.*  The  absence  of 
any  time  assignments  to  certain  staple  subjects  in  the  first 
two  grades  is  indicative  of  a  poverty  of  thought  material  not 
found  in  the  most  representative  of  the  American  schools.  The 
German  tables  show  little  time  allotment  in  the  primary  grades 
to  the  emotional  and  aesthetic  aspects  of  the  child 's  experience. 

One  other  caution  must  be  kept  in  mind  in  studying  these 
tables.  In  Germany  relative  percentage  of  time  varies  in 
regular  ratio  to  actual  time  because  of  the  uniformity  of  the 
system.  In  Tables  XLV.-LIV.  it  is  seen  Berlin  devotes  the 
smallest  percentage  of  relative  time  and  the  smallest  amount 
of  actual  time  in  minutes  per  week  to  arithmetic.  Munich 
devotes  the  largest  percentage  of  relative  time  and  the  largest 
amount  of  actual  time  to  that  subject.  But  this  is  not  the 
case  in  the  American  system.  New  York  devotes  the  smallest 

•Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects,  Michael  B.  Sadler,  Vol.  II.,  p. 
436. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  139 

relative,  but  Kansas  City  gives  less  actual  time.  Likewise 
Jersey  City  gives  the  largest  relative  time  to  the  subject  of 
arithmetic,  while  Chicago  actually  gives  more  minutes  per 
week  to  that  subject.  This  seems  to  corroborate  the  opinion 
which  the  author*  of  the  "Course  of  Study  for  Elementary 
Schools"  (p.  24)  expressed  some  years  ago,  to  the  effect  that 
such  differences  in  America  are  to  be  accounted  for  largely  by 
the  indifference  upon  the  part  of  some  school  officials  to  the 
highest  ends  of  education  and  to  a  proper  adjustment  of  the 
subjects  to  be  taught. 

6.     Conservatism  and  Changes  in  Forty  Years. 

German  conservatism  and  suspicion  of  the  "fads  and 
frills"  of  the  course  of  study  are  rather  characteristic.  A 
comparison  of  the  courses  of  study  outlined  in  these  pages 
(see  Tables  I.-XIIL  and  XLIV.-LVI.)  does  not  only  show 
that  there  are  fewer  subjects  taught  in  their  elementary 
schools,  but  that  a  considerably  larger  portion  of  time  is  al- 
lotted to  the  "three  R's"  than  elsewhere.  Manual  training 
for  boys  is  noticeable  for  its  absence  from  the  course  of  study 
in  all  of  the  German  states  and  cities ;  domestic  science  is  not 
much  more  popular.  New  studies  have  had  a  severe  struggle 
to  gain  their  part  of  the  recitation  time.  In  fact,  the  Germans 
are  exceptionally  slow  in  making  any  change  at  all  in  the 
curriculum.  The  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education 
(in  a  letter  dated  Jan.  7,  1904)  is  authority  for  the  statement 
that  "The  courses  of  study  for  the  schools  of  German  cities 
remain  practically  as  they  were  in  1894-5."  The  statement 
is  corroborated  and  this  date  still  further  removed  in  a  letter 
received  by  the  writer  from  the  Minister  of  Education  of 
Prussia  (under  date  of  Feb.  19,  1904)  in  which  he  says  the 
courses  of  study  in  Prussia  today  follow  the  "Regulations" 
(Allgemeine-Bestimmungen)  of  Minister  Falk  issued  October 

•J.  T.  Prince. 


TABLE  LVII.  —  Showing  the  Curriculum  and  the  Time  Allotment  of  the  Common  Schools  of  Berlin,  Ger- 
many, for  the  Years  1840,  1860,  1873,  1893  and  1901. 

1840  1860  1873 

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142  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

15,  1872.  In  order  to  show  this  static  condition  of  the  German 
curriculum  a  little  more  in  detail,  a  type  study  has  been 
made  of  the  public  elementary  schools  of  Berlin.  (See  Table 
LVII.) 

During  the  forty-one  years  from  1860  to  1901,  only  two 
subjects  were  introduced  into  the  Berlin  course  of  study,  viz., 
geography  and  gymnastics ;  and  since  1873  there  has  not  been 
a  single  subject  dropped  or  added.  It  would  be  interesting  to 
know  if  as  much  could  be  said  of  any  American  city  during 
the  last  five  years.  The  only  changes  in  the  time  allotment  of 
the  Berlin  schools  since  1873  are  seen  in  the  following  sum- 
mary made  from  Table  LVII. 


LOSSES   (per  week) 
Hour. 

GAINS  (per  week) 

Hour. 

Grade     I.  —  Religion, 
Arithmetic, 
Singing, 
Object   Lessons, 

1 
1 
1 
2 

Gymnastics, 

5 

Grade    II.  —  Language, 
Singing 
Object  Lessons, 

1 
1 
2 

Gymnastics, 
Drawing, 

2 
2 

Grade  III.  —  Handwork  for  girls, 

4 

Nature  Study, 
Gymnastics, 

2 
2 

Grade  IV.  —  Language, 
Handwork  for  girls, 
Drawing, 

2 
4 
2 

Gymnastics, 
History, 
Geometry, 

2 

2 
2 

Grade      V.  —  Handwork  for  girls, 

2 

Gymnastics  for  girls, 

2 

Grade  VI.  —  Handwork  for  girls, 

2 

Gymnastics  for  girls, 

2 

The  losses  by  both  boys  and  girls  are  religion,  one  hour; 
arithmetic,  one  hour;  singing,  two  hours;  object  lessons,  four 
hours ;  language,  three  hours.  The  loss  by  girls  alone  is  hand- 
work, twelve  hours,  which  is  replaced  by  ten  hours  of  gym- 
nastics and  two  hours  of  nature  study.  The  gains  by  both 
boys  and  girls  have  been  twelve  hours  of  gymnastics  and  two 
of  history,  while  the  boys  alone  gained  two  hours  of  geometry. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  143 

The  main  tendencies  of  growth  in  the  Berlin  curriculum  in 
these  thirty  years  have  been  in  the  abandoning  of  nature  study 
in  the  first  two  grades,  the  increase  of  gymnastics  for  boys 
and  the  admission  of  girls  to  gymnastics.  The  decrease  of 
handwork  for  girls  is  not  important,  because  that  subject  is 
still  left  with  a  normal  amount  of  time. 

7.    Physical  Education  actually  Provided  for. 

The  one  interesting  feature  of  this  development  of  the 
Berlin  curriculum  has  been  that  it  shows  that  for  the  past 
thirty-one  years  the  city  has  been  attempting  to  provide 
adequate  physical  exercise  for  boys.  It  is  rather  remarkable 
that  for  thirty  years  this  city  should  have  provided  more  time 
upon  its  program  for  caring  for  the  health  of  its  pupils  than 
is  found  in  the  year  1904  in  the  courses  of  study  of  eight  out 
of  the  ten  representative  American  cities  chosen  for  this  study. 
(See  Tables  II.-XI.)  When  we  compare  the  American  aver- 
age allotment,  Table  XIII.,  and  the  German,  Table  LVL, 
seven  of  the  German  cities  are  seen  to  devote  approximately 
6  per  cent  and  the  other  three  approximately  4  per  cent  of 
their  total  assigned  time  to  the  care  of  the  health  of  the  child 
by  means  of  systematic  physical  training;  whereas,  on  the 
contrary,  of  the  seven  American  cities  which  devote  any  time 
to  the  subject  at  all,  only  two  give  as  much  as  6  per  cent  of 
the  time,  the  other  five  approximating  3  per  cent,  which  is 
less  than  the  three  lowest  German  cities.  In  this  comparison 
it  must  be  remembered  that  the  percentage  of  total  time  in 
Germany  means  much  more  than  it  does  in  America,  because 
as  has  already  been  shown  there  is  more  actual  time.  To  make 
this  comparison  does  no  injustice  to  America  because  of  any 
fallacy  of  accidental  selection  of  either  of  the  two  groups  of 
cities  selected  for  study.  To  prove  this  it  is  only  necessary  to 
refer  to  Table  L,  made  up  of  fifty  American  cities,  among 
which  are  certainly  nearly  all  of  those  approximating  in  pop- 


144  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

ulation  the  ten  German  cities.  It  may  be  noticed  that  not 
more  than  4  per  cent  of  these  fifty  cities  make  any  provision 
at  all  upon  their  programs  for  the  physical  training  of  the 
child.  How  far  this  percentage  is  from  applying  to  the  school 
children  in  Germany,  a  glance  at  the  legal  requirements,  as 
tabulated  in  Table  XLIV.,  will  readily  show.  In  this  table  it 
appears  that  physical  culture  is  offered  to  more  than  two- 
thirds  of  the  children  of  the  Empire.  It  may  be  that  this 
helps  to  answer  the  assertion  that  the  German  child  is  able 
to  endure  a  heavier  mental  tax  than  the  American  child. 

One  phase  of  the  question  of  physical  culture  in  the  Ger- 
man school  is  difficult  for  the  American  to  appreciate.  By 
referring  to  Tables  XLV.  to  LIV.  one  will  find  to  his  surprise 
how  many  of  the  courses  of  study  provide  physical  training 
for  boys  and  not  for  girls.  It  is  true  that  the  girls  have  hand- 
work in  its  stead,  but  it  is  hardly  conceivable  that  sewing,  or 
even  cooking  in  the  one  instance  given,  could  be  classified 
among  those  physical  activities  which  contribute  to  the  train- 
ing of  the  bodily  organism.  The  discrimination  against  the 
girls  is  further  emphasized  by  referring  to  the  total  recitation 
time  in  each  grade  per  week.  If  one  can  assume  that  an  in- 
crease of  recitation  time  implies  an  increase  of  work,  then  the 
girls  are  actually  required  to  do  more  work  in  school  than  the 
boys  in  the  thirty-nine  out  of  the  forty-five  grades  in  these  ten 
cities  which  require  a  difference  of  recitation  time  for  girls 
and  boys. 

8.    Language. 

The  contention  is  made  in  connection  with  this  study  that  in 
the  main  the  relative  percentage  of  the  time  devoted  to  a  sub- 
ject indicates  the  relative  importance  attached  to  that  subject. 
To  the  counter  proposal  that  such  would  indicate  only  the  diffi- 
culty of  the  subject,  it  is  cited  that  mathematics  is  undoubt- 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  145 

edly  more  difficult  than  reading  or  language,  and  yet  mathe- 
matics invariably  receives  less  recitation  time. 

According  to  this  time  criterion,  language  is  regarded  as  the 
most  important  subject  in  the  German  curriculum.  Indeed, 
German  education  is,  more  than  that  of  any  other  nation  of 
the  world,  based  upon  linguistic  studies. 

The  prominence  given  in  America  to  manual  training  and 
those  exercises  which  have  to  do  with  humane  education  pro- 
duces a  system  which  is  the  antithesis  of  all  that  is  typically 
German.  We  look  to  human  life  for  a  determination  of  our 
standards  of  worth.  The  German  will  perhaps  claim  to  do 
the  same  thing,  but  his  regard  is  more  for  the  forms  of  culture 
derived  from  the  civilization  of  the  past  than  for  those  founded 
on  the  activities  of  the  present.  How  much  he  is  still 
"haunted  by  the  ghost  of  'general  culture'  "  is  shown  par- 
ticularly in  the  study  of  language.  Of  course  this  appears 
more  conspicuously  in  the  study  of  the  curricula  of  the  sec- 
ondary school  than  in  those  of  the  elementary,  but  even  in 
the  latter  the  excessive  time  allotment  to  language  is  sig- 
nificant. 

In  considering  the  subject  of  language,  we  may  exclude 
the  study  of  spelling,  which  is  an  unnecessary  evil  in  a  com- 
posite language  like  the  German  (it  is  practically  forbidden 
by  law  in  Germany),  and  include  reading,  writing  and  per- 
haps three-fourths  of  the  time  devoted  to  the  study  of  re- 
ligion, since  this  latter  study  praetically  takes  the  place  of 
much  work  in  language  and  literature  which  would  otherwise 
be  required.  Considering  it  thus,  we  may  safely  say  that  an 
average  of  40  per  cent  of  the  total  assigned  recitation  time  in 
the  ten  cities,  as  shown  in  Table  LVL,  is  given  to  language 
alone.  This  statement  must  be  supplemented  by  the  fact  that 
teachers  are  given  specific  instructions  to  make  every  recitation 
one  in  language.  In  several  of  the  grades,  over  thirteen  hours 
per  week  are  assigned  to  language  alone.  Kb'nigsberg  leads  in 


146  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

the  prominence  attached  to  language  in  any  one  grade;  55.1 
per  cent  of  the  time  in  its  first  grade,  and  52.4  per  cent  in  the 
second,  are  given  to  this  one  study. 

The  different  subjects  included  under  language  are  read- 
ing, writing,  composition,  literature  and  grammar,  dictation 
and  object  lessons  (Anschauungunterrieht).  Object  lessons 
are  taught  and  used  as  subjects  of  oral  composition  in  the 
earlier  grades  only.  Reading  and  oral  composition  are  taken 
almost  wholly  from  historical  biography  or  national  litera- 
ture. Much  time  is  saved  in  reading  by  insisting  that  the 
reading  matter  shall  have  worth  in  itself  and  bear  upon  other 
subjects  of  instruction.  The  amount  of  reading  matter  cov- 
ered in  the  average  Prussian  school  is  very  small  and  cannot 
be  compared  with  that  read  in  the  American.  Frequently 
a  book  of  five  hundred  pages  lasts  a  pupil  six  years.  Cases 
are  quoted  in  which  the  child  reads  only  sixteen  octavo  pages 
in  the  first  year,  and  this,  too,  in  a  good  school.*  The  German 
has  a  strenuous  idea  of  thoroughness  which  will  not  admit  of 
his  covering  a  vast  number  of  pages  in  reading  lessons,  as  his 
American  neighbor  does.  The  possibility  of  causing  fatigue 
and  destroying  the  interest  of  his  pupil  seems  not  to  annoy 
the  German  pedagogue. 

9.    Religion. 

Religion  is  a  subject  of  which  the  American  educator  claims 
to  have  too  little  in  his  elementary  schools  and  the  German,  on 
the  other  hand,  too  much.  It  has  already  been  shown  that  this 
subject  is  largely  responsible  for  the  larger  weekly  recitation 
time  found  in  the  German  schools.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
want  of  time  is  no  excuse  for  the  absence  of  that  subject  from 
the  American  curriculum.  Various  opinions  regarding  the 
importance  of  this  subject  are  shown  in  the  German  tables, 
but  all  agree  in  allowing  it  almost  as  much  time  as  they  do 

•Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects,  Sadler,  Vol.  IX.,  p.  318. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  147 

arithmetic.  Table  LVIL  shows  that  since  1840  there  has  been 
a  steady  decrease  of  time  for  religion  in  the  Berlin  schools. 
In  Wiirtemberg,  where  the  subject  receives  by  law  eight 
hours  and  forty  minutes  a  week,  a  fierce  fight  is  raging  between 
progressive  educators  and  the  clergy,  who  in  all  Germany  have 
considerable  voice  in  educational  affairs.  Certain  cities,  such 
as  Stuttgart,  seem  by  some  device  to  have  escaped  the  official 
requirements.  But  even  after  the  subject  receives  only  its 
normal  allotment,  there  will  always  remain  a  large  amount  of 
time  devoted  to  it,  for  the  Germans  are  essentially  a  religious 
people. 

Practically  all  the  elementary  schools  of  Germany  are  re- 
ligious schools,  though  not  under  the  control  of  the  church.1 
In  the  truest  sense  of  the  word,  this  is  the  case  in  Prussia,  in 
which  State  every  elementary  school,  with  a  few  exceptions,  is 
either  Protestant,  Catholic  or  Jewish.  The  teaching  is  non- 
sectarian,  but  the  teachers  are  required  to  teach  Biblical  his- 
tory, the  catechism,  hymns,  the  creed  and  points  of  religious 
ethics.2  Section  18  of  the  "Regulations"  of  1872  requires 
that  the  Gospel  or  Epistle  for  the  following  Sunday  shall  be 
taught  by  the  teacher  on  the  previous  Saturday.  When  the 
school  releases  the  child,  the  church  takes  charge  of  him,  for 
on  the  day  of  his  release  from  school,  the  child  either  is  "con- 
firmed" in  the  Protestant  church  or  goes  to  the  "first  com- 
munion" in  the  Catholic  church.3  The  time  allotment  in  the 
above  tables  does  not  over-estimate  the  importance  of  this 
subject  in  the  mind  of  the  German  educator. 

When  a  nation  of  educators  have  thought  over,  philoso- 
phised about,  and  actually  for  so  many  decades  have  taught 
in  their  schools  a  subject  like  this,  and  give  it  today  from 

Deports  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  of  the  United   States,  1889- 
'    "Reports  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  of  the  United  States,   1889- 

'  'Reports  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  of  the  United  States,  1888- 
89,  p.  51. 


148  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

13.8  per  cent  to  18.8  per  cent  of  the  entire  recita- 
tion time,  their  practice  ought  to  have  some  weight  with  the 
American  people  who  are  seeking  to  find  the  legitimate  place 
of  the  subject  in  the  school  curriculum.  There  may  be  differ- 
ences of  educational  aims  between  the  two  systems,  but  there 
should  be  no  disagreement  as  to  the  importance  of  any  avail- 
able agency  for  the  furtherance  of  public  morals  and  public 
virtue.  Whether  or  not  the  Germans  are  more  religious  or 
more  virtuous  than  we,  does  not  affect  the  question ;  for  it  can 
hardly  be  granted  that  the  German  boy  knows  any  less  of  the 
Bible  than  the  American  boy,  or  that  he  is  any  less  upright  for 
what  he  does  know.  There  have  been  practically  no  facts  cor- 
related on  the  subject  of  the  relative  Biblical  knowledge  and 
religious  and  moral  character  of  the  two  peoples,  such  as  would 
warrant  one  in  drawing  comparisons.  But  what  few  measure- 
ments have  been  made  as  to  the  Biblical  knowledge  of  the 
American  school  boy  indicate  that  scarcely  any  way  could  be 
discovered  for  him  to  know  less  of  that  subject.  If  the  Ger- 
man school  boy  has  learned  anything  of  Biblical  truth  from 
his  instructor,  the  advantage  is  in  his  favor. 

10.    Arithmetic. 

The  German  child  is  said  to  be  much  superior  to  other  chil- 
dren in  the  oral  exposition  of  arithmetic.  The  Prussian 
"Regulations"  (Sec.  28)  are  quite  clear  as  to  the  emphasis  to 
be  placed  upon  mental  arithmetic.  "In  the  lower  divisions, 
in  schools  with  one  or  two  teachers,  so  far  as  possible,  and  in 
the  other  schools  regularly,  all  calculations  are  to  be  done  in 
the  head.  At  the  beginning  of  the  new  rule,  in  all  divisions, 
calculations  in  the  head  are  to  precede  those  done  on  the 
board."  Another  specification  is  that  "the  relation  to  every 
day  life  is  always  to  be  kept  in  view."  For  these  reasons  the 
mere  number  of  pages  in  arithmetic  which  they  do  is  consid- 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  149 

erably  less  than  with  us.  The  highest  grades  of  the  elementary 
school  are  not  required  to  go  farther  than  common  and  deci- 
mal fractions. 

As  in  America,  the  relative  time  assigned  makes  arithmetic 
second  in  importance  to  language.  The  variation  between  the 
ten  German  cities  is  about  the  same  as  the  variation  between 
the  ten  American  cities.  The  relative  time  is  from  14  per 
cent  to  22.8  per  cent  in  the  German  tables,  between  12  per 
cent  and  19.5  per  cent  in  the  American.  The  average  relative 
time  for  the  ten  cities  of  each  country  is  exactly  the  same,  17.3 
per  cent.  But  in  each  case  there  is  perhaps  an  allowance  to  be 
made  for  selection.  Munich's  22.8  per  cent  is  as  exceptionally 
high  as  New  York's  12  per  cent  is  exceptionally  low.  None 
of  the  German  or  American  cities  devote  as  much  time  as 
Munich  to  arithmetic. 

11.     Realien. 

Realien  is  the  title  which  the  Germans  apply  to  geography, 
history,  elementary  science  and  nature  study.  These  four 
subjects  are  not  supposed  to  be  separated  either  in  subject 
matter  and  method,  or  in  the  mind  of  the  child.  Object  les- 
sons, as  taught  in  connection  with  language  in  the  lower 
grades,  furnish  the  preparation  for  these  subjects.  There  is 
a  very  easy  and  logical  transition  from  object  lessons,  includ- 
ing the  study  of  objects  around  the  child,  to  home  geography, 
local  traditions  in  history  and  elementary  nature  study. 
Quite  as  easy  is  the  next  step,  leading  from  the  geography  of 
the  district  to  that  of  the  province  and  Empire;  from  local 
history  to  the  biography  of  great  men  of  the  district,  province 
and  Empire,  and  from  nature  study  to  physiology  and  elemen- 
tary physics.  There  is  in  the  elementary  schools  practically 
no  history  referring  to  the  great  economic  and  social  move- 
ments of  civilization, — the  work  is  confined  mainly  to  biog- 
raphy. 


150  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

Further  comparison  of  Tables  LIV.-LVI.  with  Tables  XII.- 
XIII.  reveals  the  fact  that  the  Germans  devote  practically  the 
same  time  relatively  and  actually  to  history  that  we  do,  but 
they  devote  to  geography  more  actual  time  than  we,  and  it  is 
much  better  distributed  throughout  the  grades.  This  is  due 
partly  to  the  fact  that  home  geography  has  gained  a  stronger 
foothold  than  with  us. 

12.    Correlation. 

Correlation,  in  the  sense  of  the  interrelation  of  the  topics 
from  different  subjects  of  instruction,  is  much  more  possible 
between  history  and  geography  after  the  third  grade  in  Ger- 
many than  in  America,  because  of  an  equalization  of  the  per- 
centages of  recitation  time  devoted  to  these  two  subjects  from 
the  third  grade  on.  This  equalization  is  not  found  in  any  of 
the  American  grades,  except  the  seventh  and  eighth,  whereas 
it  is  found  in  five  out  of  eight  grades  in  Germany. 

The  correlation  cited  between  history,  geography,  nature 
study,  elementary  science  and  object  lessons  is  but  a  type  of 
the  evidence  appearing  in  the  German  curriculum  which  leads 
one  to  believe  that  correlation  is  a  reality  there.  Of  course, 
it  may  be  practiced  without  appearing  upon  the  program, 
but  there  is  the  rarest  probability  of  such  being  the  case  in 
America,  where  the  overworked  teacher  with  a  crowded  curric- 
ulum is  only  too  thankful  to  finish  what  is  actually  and  in  so 
many  words  assigned.  Certainly  no  convincing  evidence  has 
been  found  regarding  correlation  in  our  study  of  the  Ameri- 
can school.  Has  it  not  often  been  the  case  that  our  superin- 
tendents and  principals  have  so  hastily  and  thoughtlessly  in- 
troduced new  subjects  that  they  have  failed  to  distribute  these 
subjects  and  the  time  allotted  to  them  with  that  due  propor- 
tion which  makes  real  correlation  possible? 

13.    Formal  vs.  Content  Studies. 

The  content  studies  are  more  generally  taught  in  the  lower 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  151 

grades  and  receive  more  time  in  America  than  in  Germany. 
This  is  largely  due  to  the  difference  of  method.  The  German 
philosophy  stands  for  thorough  and  complete  teaching  of  a 
subject  at  one  time.  The  American  adheres  to  the  concentric 
circle  system,  by  which  a  subject  is  taught  only  in  part  at  one 
time  and  repeated  in  the  several  grades  from  different  points 
of  view.  Except  for  geography,  the  Germans,  unlike  the 
Americans,  do  not  see  much  reason  for  introducing  content 
studies  in  the  lower  grades;  history,  nature  study,  drawing 
and  handwork  for  girls  are  scarcely  provided  for  in  the  first 
three  years  of  school  life. 

There  is  a  tendency  shown  in  all  these  German  tables  to 
teach  the  formal  studies  in  the  early  grades ;  the  time  devoted 
to  them  is  gradually  diminished  as  the  upper  grades  are  ap- 
proached, and  its  place  is  filled  by  a  corresponding  increase 
of  the  assignment  to  content  studies.  The  summary  in  Table 
LVI.  shows  that  religion,  language  and  arithmetic  receive 
less  time  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  than  elsewhere.  On 
the  contrary  all  other  subjects  receive  more  time  in  the  upper 
grammar  grades  than  elsewhere,  and  this  gradual  increase  is 
steady  as  these  upper  grades  are  approached.  This  is  an  im- 
portant distinction  between  the  German  uniform  curriculum 
and  the  variable  one  of  America.  In  America,  arithmetic 
really  receives  about  as  much  time  in  one  grade  as  in  another ; 
geography,  contrary  to  the  German  plan,  receives  more  time 
in  the  fourth  grade  than  in  the  sixth,  seventh  or  eighth; 
nature  study  more  in  the  fifth  than  in  the  eighth,  while  draw- 
ing, music  and  physical  training  receive  more  time  in  the  first 
two  than  in  the  last  two  grades. 

This  distinction  raises  the  problem  whether  it  is  better  to 
follow  the  German  plan  of  teaching  the  formal  in  the  earlier 
school  life  of  the  child  and  the  more  concrete  in  the  later  life, 
or  to  follow  the  American  plan  which  seems  to  be  just  the  re- 


152  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

verse.  Or,  might  it  not  be  better,  departing  from  both  plans, 
to  teach  the  more  abstract  formal  studies  through  the  more 
concrete  content  studies,  in  all  grades,  until  a  satisfactory 
knowledge  of  the  subject  is  acquired? 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  CURRICULUM  OF  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS 
IN  PRANCE. 

1.    Administration  of  the  Elementary  Schools. 

All  the  schools  of  France,  both  public  and  private,  are 
under  the  direct  control  of  the  State.  No  money  is  expended, 
no  book  adopted,  no  study  introduced  into  the  program  with- 
out the  consent  of  the  central  authority.  This  authority  is 
vested  in  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  and  Fine  Arts 
(Ministre  de  1 'Instruction  publique  et  des  Beaux- Arts),  who 
is  a  Cabinet  officer  and  possesses  extensive  administrative 
power.  He  is  assisted  by  the  Superior  Council  of  Public  In- 
struction, composed  of  sixty  members,  fifteen  of  whom  are 
chosen  by  the  President  of  the  Republic,  the  remainder  being 
elected  by  their  colleagues,  the  professors  and  teachers.  This 
Council  meets  twice  a  year.  An  executive  Committee  of  fifteen, 
chosen  from  the  sixty,  meets  weekly  with  the  Minister  and 
transacts  the  bulk  of  business.  The  course  of  study  for  each 
and  every  public  elementary  school  is  prescribed  by  the  Min- 
ister and  the  Council.  They  choose  books,  create  and  suppress 
schools,  and  advise  about  all  matters  of  instruction  and  admin- 
istration. 

For  the  supervision  of  the  system  and  the  execution  of  the 
laws  and  decrees  of  the  Minister,  the  country  is  divided  be- 
tween seven  General  Inspectors.  Under  these  are  ninety 
Academy  Inspectors,  one  for  each  Department,  France  being 
divided  for  educational  purposes  into  ninety  Departments  or 

153 


154  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

large  counties.  Below  the  Academy  Inspectors  are  about  four 
hundred  and  forty  Primary  Inspectors,  one  for  about  every 
one  hundred  and  fifty  schools.  The  Primary  Inspectors  come 
in  more  direct  contact  than  the  other  officials  with  the  teachers 
and  the  pupils.  It  is  their  business  to  see  that  the  curriculum 
prescribed  by  the  central  authority  is  properly  carried  out. 

France,  including  Algiers,  is  divided  into  seventeen 
Academies  or  administrative  divisions.  These  seventeen  Acad- 
emies are  further  divided  into  ninety  Departments,  the  civil 
heads  of  which,  known  as  the  Prefects  of  the  Departments, 
are  appointed  by  the  President.  The  Department  is  the  local 
unit  for  primary  school  administration ;  for  instance,  if  addi- 
tional studies  were  to  be  added  in  any  school,  over  and  above 
those  prescribed  by  the  Minister  and  his  Council,  the  selections 
would  be  made  by  the  Department,  through  the  Prefect  and 
Departmental  Council,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  higher 
authorities.  Each  Department  is  divided  into  Arrondisse- 
ments,  each  Arrondissement  into  Cantons,  and  each  Canton 
into  Communes,  which  are  the  smallest  unit  within  the  com- 
plex French  educational  machine. 

The  only  important  work  done  by  any  local  authority  is  the 
supervision  of  the  compulsory  attendance  laws  by  the  com- 
munal school  committee  (Commission  Scolaires).  The  State 
through  its  various  inspectors  manages  nearly  all  the  system 
from  Paris.  It  secures  this  right  by  paying  the  larger  part  of 
total  running  expenses  of  the  schools.  It  pays  the  salaries  of 
all  elementary  teachers.  The  local  community  only  builds  the 
school  house. 

The  course  of  study  presented  in  France  is  created  and  con- 
trolled by  the  most  highly  developed  bureaucratic  system  of 
education  in  the  world  today.  Down  to  the  smallest  details, 
each  item  is  passed  upon  by  the  central  officers  at  Paris,  either 
directly  or  by  proxy.  The  departmental  Council,  it  is  true, 
adds  studies  and,  within  numerous  required  limits,  may  pre- 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  155 

scribe  the  time  per  week  to  be  devoted  to  a  study.  But  the 
Prefect  of  the  Department  and  the  Academy  Inspectors  are 
officers  appointed  by  the  President  of  the  Republic. 

2.    General  Laws  Relating  to  the  Elementary  Schools. 

By  the  law  of  October  30,  1886,  which  is  still  operative, 
primary  schools  comprise:  (1)  Infant  Schools  and  Classes; 
(2)  Lower  Primary  Schools;  (3)  Higher  Primary  Schools 
(or  higher  grades  attached  to  Lower  Primary  Schools  and 
called  Cours  Complementaires) ;  (4)  Technical  or  Professional 
Schools. 

Primary  education  is  free  in  all  these  grades  and  compul- 
sory for  all  children  from  six  to  thirteen,  unless  they  have 
obtained  the  " Certificate  of  Primary  Studies,"  for  which 
they  are  eligible  at  eleven  years  of  age.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  vast  majority  of  children,  especially  in  the  rural  districts, 
manage  somehow  to  obtain  this  certificate  and  leave  when 
they  are  eleven  years  old. 

We  shall  interest  ourselves  only  with  the  course  of  study 
presented  in  the  first  two  divisions  of  the  French  school 
system,  and  with  the  first  only  incidentally,  as  it  is  related  to 
the  Lower  Primary  School.  These  Lower  Primary  Schools 
are  chosen  for  study  because  only  a  small  percentage  of  the 
pupils  in  the  public  elementary  schools  attend  any  other  than 
the  Lower  Primary  School.  Both  the  certificate  of  exemption 
from  compulsory  attendance,  obtainable  at  eleven  years,  and 
the  limit  of  the  compulsory  attendance  law  at  thirteen  years  of 
age,  in  effect  make  the  Lower  Primary  the  school  attended  by 
the  masses. 

The  Lower  Primary  Schools  (Ecoles  Primaires  Elemen- 
taires)  of  France  receive  children  between  the  ages  of  six 
and  thirteen.  That  is,  they  provide  for  their  tuition  during 
seven  years  of  compulsory  attendance.  The  course  of  instruc- 
tion is  divided  into  three  divisions:  (1)  the  elementary,  for 


156  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

children  from  seven  to  nine;  (2)  the  middle  course,  for  chil- 
dren from  nine  to  eleven;  (3)  the  higher  course,  for  children 
from  eleven  to  thirteen.  Each  course  is  to  employ  the  child 
for  two  years.  These  divisions  are  compulsory  for  all  ele- 
mentary schools,  except  those  with  one  teacher  only,  where  the 
two  upper  courses  may  be  given  without  division.  Children 
below  the  age  of  seven  are  provided  for  by  an  infant  section. 

In  schools  with  two  teachers,  one  has  charge  of  the  infant 
section  and  the  elementary  course,  the  other  of  the  two  upper 
courses.  In  schools  with  three  teachers  each  course  forms  a 
distinct  grade.  In  schools  with  four  teachers,  the  elementary 
course  is  divided  into  two  grades  with  a  teacher  to  each  grade, 
and  the  other  two  teachers  take  the  middle  and  higher  courses 
as  a  grade  each.  In  schools  with  five  teachers,  the  two  lower 
courses  are  each  divided  into  two  grades  with  a  teacher  to 
each  grade,  and  the  higher  course  is  taught  by  the  fifth 
teacher.  In  schools  of  six  teachers,  each  course  is  divided  into 
two  grades,  and  each  grade  is  given  to  a  teacher.  If  a  school 
has  more  than  six  teachers  no  new  grades  are  formed,  but 
crowded  grades  are  divided  into  sections.  In  case  there  were 
two  years  devoted  to  the  infant  section,  there  might  be  eight 
grades  in  each  school,  beginning  with  children  five  years  of  age 
and  ending  with  those  thirteen  years  of  age.  In  case  of  one 
year  devoted  to  the  infant  section,  there  might  be  seven  grades. 
But  very  often  the  infant  class  is  in  a  separate  building  or  in 
the  Maternal  School.  Six  grades,  beginning  with  our  second 
grade,  or  with  children  seven  years  old,  are  the  rule  for  cities. 

In  all  cases  in  which  the  same  course  comprises  two  grades, 
one  grade  represents  the  first  year  and  the  other  the  second 
year  of  the  course.  The  two  grades  follow  the  same  course  of 
study,  but  the  lessons  and  exercises  are  so  graduated  that  in 
the  second  year  pupils  review  and  complete  the  studies  of  the 
first.  This  method  of  proceeding  by  concentric  circles  rather 
than  by  progress  and  development  of  new  matter  is  opposed 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  157 

wherever  the  German  method  is  popular.  The  French  plan 
lays  stress  upon  one  very  important  consideration,  almost  un- 
known in  American  syllabi  or  curricula.  The  law  insists  that 
the  second  year  work  of  a  division  shall  "review,  deepen  and 
complete"  the  first  year's  work.  There  is  no  specification  as  to 
review  in  the  American  curriculum.  "Something  new"  is 
supposed  to  be  necessary  and  review  is  left  to  the  whim  of  the 
individual  teacher. 

3.     The  Curriculum  and  Organization  of  the  Sub-Primary 
Schools  and  Classes. 

Before  entering  upon  the  discussion  of  the  elementary  school 
curriculum  proper,  it  will  be  necessary  to  explain  the  mechan- 
ism and  the  work  of  the  two  kinds  of  kindergarten  schools  to 
which  is  entrusted  the  education  of  the  French  child  before 
he  enters  the  first  course  of  the  elementary  school. 

These  two  schools  are  known  as  Mother  Schools  (E coles 
Maternelles)  and  Infant  Classes  (Classes  Infantines)  or, 
when  they  are  attached  to  elementary  schools,  Infant  Sections. 
It  was  estimated  that  there  were  1,348,443  children  under  six 
years  old  in  the  schools  of  France  in  1897  in  these  two  kinds 
of  schools.  This  does  not  include  the  number  in  Infant  Sec- 
tions attached  to  elementary  schools. 

The  Maternal  Schools,  not  being  obligatory  for  communes 
with  a  population  under  two  thousand,  are  confined  to  the 
larger  cities.  They  receive  children  from  two  to  six  years 
of  age,  except  in  Paris  where  pupils  may  attend  until  they  are 
seven  years  old.  The  schools  are  kept  open  for  forty-eight 
weeks  during  the  year,  six  days  in  the  week,  and  are  open  from 
7  A.  M.  until  7  P.  M.  in  summer  and  from  8  A.  M.  until  6 
P.  M.  in  winter.  About  four  hours  of  this  time  are  taken  up 
with  class  room  work.  There  are  two  divisions,  one  for  small 
children  from  two  to  five  years  old,  and  one  for  children  from 
five  to  six. 


158  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

The  decrees  of  the  Minister  and  Superior  Council  of  Edu- 
cation, dated  January  18,  1887,  and  August  8,  1890,  prescribe 
a  lengthy  syllabus  of  instruction  for  Maternal  Schools,  includ- 
ing rules  for  governing  them.  The  subjects  of  instruction  are 
the  same  for  the  two  sections,  except  that  recitation  and 
national  history  are  taught  only  in  the  upper  section.  The 
subjects  are: 

1.  The  first  principles  of  moral  education. 

2.  Some  knowledge  of  common  things. 

3.  The  elements  of  drawing. 

4.  The  elements  of  writing. 

5.  The  elements  of  reading. 

6.  Lessons  in  language. 

7.  Some  idea  of  natural  history  and  geography. 

8.  Recitation. 

9.  Manual  Training. 

10.  Number. 

11.  Singing. 

12.  Gymnastics. 

There  is  no  allotment  of  time  made  for  this  program.  The 
official  time  allotment  of  the  Paris  Maternal  Schools  which  is 
presented  below,  will  give  an  approximate  idea  of  the  dispo- 
sition of  subjects  and  the  relative  time  spent  upon  each.  A 
few  facts  must  be  kept  in  mind  in  interpreting  this  table. 
First,  these  schools  cover  one  year  more  in  Paris  than  else- 
where in  France.  They  open  for  school  work  at  6  A.  M.  and 
close  at  4  P.  M.  Of  these  seven  hours,  recess  periods  take  up 
fifteen  minutes  in  the  forenoon,  thirty  minutes  in  the  middle 
of  the  afternoon,  one  hour  and  thirty  minutes  for  lunch  and 
noon  recitation,  and  thirty  minutes  before  both  morning  and 
afternoon  sessions  for  inspection  of  cleanliness,  which  leaves 
but  three  hours  and  forty-five  minutes  recitation  time. 

Exception  has  been  made  for  Paris  as  to  time  of  sessions. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  159 

TABLE   LVIII. — Showing  the  Minutes  per  Week  devoted   to   Each 
Subject  in  the  Maternal  Schools  of  Paris.* 

Subject.  Minutes. 


1   Moral  Instruction 

60 

6  Language  including  Heading  and  Writing 

450 

8  Number  Work 

135 

9  Geography 

10  History  and  Stories 

180 

12  Common  Things 

45 

16  Recreation  in  class 

300 

17  Drawing 

90 

18  Singing 

90 

Total                                                                                                                 |      1350 

(Taken  from  "Heglement  ficoles  Maternelles  Publlques,"  adopted  by  the 
Departmental  Council  of  the  Seine,  March  16,  1893.) 

In  the  Maternal  Schools,  Thursday  is  not  a  regular  school  day 
so  far  as  all  the  subjects  upon  the  time  table  are  concerned. 
The  school  meets  under  the  regular  teacher  or  her  assistant, 
one  of  whom  is  given  a  holiday  each  Thursday.  The  school 
is  not  in  session  so  long  as  on  other  days  and  is  more  nearly 
given  up  to  motor-active  subjects.  There  are  ninety  minutes 
of  class  work  in  the  forenoon  and  a  hundred  and  five  minutes 
in  the  afternoon,  in  which  time  manual  exercises,  gymnastics, 
singing,  conversation  and  recitation  constitute  the  subjects  of 
instruction. 

The  law  of  1893  changed  the  curriculum  of  the  Paris  Ma- 
ternal School,  and  as  the  change  illustrates  a  tendency  more 
or  less  apparent  throughout  the  entire  French  system,  it  is 
worthy  of  notice.  Natural  history  was  dropped  except  as 
taught  in  connection  with  common  things;  the  time  devoted 
to  moral  instruction  was  decreased  thirty  minutes  per  week; 
language  lessons  lost  ninety  minutes  per  week ;  common  things 
lost  ninety  minutes;  recreation  was  increased  thirty  minutes. 
The  only  intentional  changes  seem  to  be  in  the  case  of  morals 
and  those  subjects  relating  to  elementary  science,  the  other 
changes  being  occasioned  doubtless  by  the  lightening  of  the 
work  on  Thursdays.  The  whole  tendency  is  toward  ameliora- 
tion of  the  strenuous  intellectual  requirements,  and  the  course 


160  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

accordingly  makes  a  stronger  appeal  to  one's  judgment  than 
the  severe  requirement  in  the  Infant  Schools  of  England. 

The  subjects  taught  in  the  Infant  Classes  are  the  same  as 
those  given  in  the  Maternal  Schools.  Wherever,  as  in  the 
larger  cities,  there  exists  both  a  Maternal  School  and  an  Infant 
Class,  the  latter  is  regarded  as  a  connecting  link  between  the 
former  and  the  Elementary  School.  Only  in  larger  cities  do 
the  two  types  exist ;  poorer  municipalities  have  only  the  Infant 
Classes.  In  Paris,  the  Infant  Class  keeps  the  child  until  his 
eighth  birthday.  Throughout  the  whole  French  system  the 
Infant  Class  simply  prepares  him  for  the  Elementary  School. 
In  smaller  communities  the  Infant  Section  is  merely  a  one 
or  two  year  course,  according  as  the  child  enters  at  five  or  six 
years  of  age.  It  is  attached  to  the  Elementary  Course  of  the 
Lower  Primary  School,  and  is  frequently,  in  poorly  staffed 
schools,  taught  by  the  teacher  of  the  Elementary  Course.  The 
subject  matter  and  time  allotment  in  such  schools  are  the  same 
as  in  the  first  grade  of  the  Elementary  School  proper.  In 
fact  the  Elementary  School  in  France,  just  as  in  England, 
begins  with  the  second  grade  year. 

The  program  of  the  Maternal  School  (see  pp.  158  and  159) 
appears  rather  difficult  for  small  children,  but  the  method  of 
using  the  program  relieves  it  of  its  apparent  fright^fulness. 
No  lesson  is  more  than  twenty  minutes  long,  and  stringent 
care  is  required  to  avoid  mental  fatigue.  The  school  for  chil- 
dren under  five  years  old  is  regarded  merely  as  a  place  where 
working  mothers  can  leave  their  children  and  have  them 
cared  for  during  their  busy  hours.  Even  during  the  lesson 
time,  "a  lesson  which  employs  the  hand  always  follows  one 
which  employs  the  mind."  Reading  and  writing  are  not  be- 
gun until  the  children  are  five,  and  sewing  is  forbidden  by  law 
because  of  the  possible  detriment  to  the  eyes  at  an  early  age. 

What  is  the  object  of  these  two  classes  of  Kindergarten 
Schools,  the  one  required  by  law  to  take  children  who  may 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  161 

come  from  the  homes  at  two  years  of  age  and  keep  them  until 
the  age  of  compulsory  attendance,  and  the  other  to  take  them 
a  year  before  compulsory  attendance  and  keep  them  a  year 
after  it  begins?  What  purpose  do  they  serve,  what  ideas 
embody,  that  they  have  an  attendance  of  nearly  one  and  a 
half  million  children?  The  law  itself  states  the  purpose  of 
the  Maternal  School:  "The  Ecole  Maternelle  is  not  a  school 
in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word ;  it  is  the  transition  from  the 
family  to  the  school ;  it  retains  the  indulgent  and  affectionate 
gentleness  of  the  home,  while  initiating  the  child  into  the  work 
and  regularity  of  the  school.  The  success  of  the  headmis- 
tress of  the  Ecole  Maternelle  must  not,  therefore,  be  judged 
wholly  or  principally  by  the  number  of  things  taught  to  the 
children,  or  by  the  high  level  of  the  teaching  and  the  number 
and  length  of  the  lessons ;  but  rather  by  the  sum  of  good  influ- 
ences which  are  brought  to  bear  on  the  child  by  the  pleasure 
which  he  is  made  to  take  in  school,  by  the  habits  of  order, 
cleanliness,  politeness,  attention,  obedience,  and  intellectual 
activity  which  he  acquires,  so  to  speak,  in  playing."  The 
purpose  of  the  Infant  Classes  and  Sections  is  largely  the  same 
as  that  of  the  Maternal  Schools,  with  perhaps  more  emphasis 
upon  the  school  than  upon  the  home  point  of  view. 

The  ideal  and  its  execution  in  the  French  system  of  Kinder- 
garten instruction  are  a  justification  for  presenting  the  cur- 
riculum of  these  schools  in  connection  with  the  study  of  the 
public  elementary  school.  One  serious  and  unsettled  problem 
in  American  education  is  how  to  bridge  the  chasm  from  the 
home  to  the  school.  A  correlative  task  is  how  to  adjust  the 
subject  matter  and  methods  of  the  kindergarten  to  those  of 
the  primary  grades.  The  kindergarten  in  America  seems  un- 
able to  offer  a  solution,  for  the  very  practical  reason  that  it 
exists  so  rarely  as  not  to  be  considered  a  serious  item  in  the 
elementary  educational  situation.  Few,  even  of  the  larger 
cities,  offer  kindergarten  privileges  to  all  their  children  under 


162  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

six  years  of  age.  To  the  practical  mind  of  the  educational 
financier  in  America,  it  is  too  expensive  to  justify  its  methods 
of  learning  by  play  and  self  activity. 

Even  if  the  American  educator  could  become  convinced 
of  a  theoretical  value  in  the  kindergarten  as  a  connecting  link 
between  the  home  and  the  elementary  school,  the  present  abso- 
lute difference  of  subject  matter  and  methods  in  the  two 
schools  would  bar  the  adoption  of  the  kindergarten  as  a  means 
to  such  a  desired  end.  That  fundamental  differences  exist 
is  an  accepted  fact,  observable  by  any  visitor  to  the  two 
schools. 

The  French  offer  suggestions  of  relief  to  us  in  two  particu- 
lars. First,  the  elementary  curriculum  is  modified  to  suit  the 
needs  of  human  life  in  its  present  condition  rather  than  in 
some  past  or  future  form.  This  modification  has  made  it 
possible  to  start  with  the  life  of  the  home  as  the  child  brings 
it  to  the  Infant  School  and  continue  it  without  a  break  into 
and  throughout  the  elementary  school.  With  us,  the  change 
must  be  made  in  the  subject  matter  of  the  elementary  school 
rather  than  in  the  kindergarten,  for  our  kindergarten  begins 
with  the  life  of  the  home;  but  when  the  kindergarten  has 
brought  the  child,  with  his  needs  and  the  training  of  two 
years  based  upon  these  needs,  to  the  primary  school,  he  is 
met  with  a  rebuff.  The  formal  studies,  which  in  a  large  meas- 
ure respond  to  no  immediate  need,  experience  or  demand  of 
the  child  or  of  his  home  life,  are  forced  upon  him  and  the 
continuity  of  training  is  immediately  broken. 

The  experts  in  the  employ  of  the  educational  bureau  of 
France  insist  with  weighty  reason  upon  the  continuity  of  the 
curriculum  begun  in  the  kindergarten. 

It  is  true  that  the  central  organization  assists  in  bringing 
about  this  connection  between  home  and  school.  But  it  is  not 
believed  that  such  desiderata  are  impossible  even  under  our 
system.  If,  however,  some  form  of  centralized  control  is 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  163 

essential,  then  let  it  come.  The  absence  of  it  is  but  a  mark 
of  inefficiency,  if  that  uniformity  and  unbroken  continuity, 
which  are  essential  to  any  effectual  educational  system  and 
the  prerequisites  of  a  good  course  of  study,  cannot  be  attained 
without  bureaucratic  control. 

If  the  study  of  the  French  sub-primary  schools  can  assist 
us  in  connecting  the  home  with  the  school,  and  the  kinder- 
garten with  the  primary  school,  and  in  discovering  some  way 
to  construct  a  continuous  course  of  study  organically  related 
in  its  parts,  it  will  have  rendered  us  an  important  service. 

In  the  study  of  the  elementary  curriculum  in  France,  which 
is  now  taken  up,  only  two  tables  are  offered.  The  first  shows 
the  subject  matter,  its  distribution  by  grades,  the  time  allotted 
to  it  in  each  grade,  and  the  relative  percentage  of  total  time 
spent  upon  each  subject  in  each  grade,  for  all  the  public  ele- 
mentary schools  of  France.  This  table  is  prescribed  by  the 
Minister  of  Education  and  his  Council.  The  second  table 
shows  the  same  items  for  Paris.  It  is  unnecessary  to  make  an 
extended  study  of  the  curricula  of  various  schools  of  France, 
as  has  been  done  for  the  schools  of  the  other  countries,  as  the 
perfection  and  the  absolute  precision  of  the  laws  made  by  the 
central  authority  fix  the  smallest  detail  for  each  city.  A 
type  study  of  the  Paris  schools  is  sufficient. 

The  first  table  was  correlated  from  the  following  sources: 
the  law  of  March  28th,  1882,  sketching  the  curriculum  for  all 
grades  of  Primary  Schools ;  the  decree  of  January  18th,  1887, 
fixing  the  details  of  the  program  for  Elementary  Schools ;  the 
decrees  of  August  8th,  1890,  January  4th,  1894,  March  9th, 
1897,  and  September  17th  and  20th,  1898,  completing  the 
curriculum  of  1887.  In  these  laws  certain  rules  regarding  the 
time  table  are  prescribed:  (1)  At  the  beginning  of  each  year 
a  time  table  of  subjects  taught  each  day  and  hour,  approved 
by  the  Primary  Inspector,  shall  be  posted  by  the  principal  in 
each  class  room;  (2)  The  more  difficult  subjects  shall  be  re- 


164  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  LIX. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to  Each 
Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  the  Percentage  of  Total  Time  given 
Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  France. 


Course. 


Elementary.         Middle. 


Higher. 


Grade. 
1   Moral   Instruction 


II. 


III.        IV. 


V. 


VI.        VII. 


Pet. 


I    Klve  Recitations  per  week. 


3  Writing 

300 

300 

Gradually    decreasing. 

6  Language1 

GOO 

GOO 

6OO 

600 

600 

GOO 

33.3 

8  Arithmetic 

225 

225 

300 

300 

300 

300 

15.3 

9  Geography 
10  History 
11  Civics 

300 

300 

300 

300 

300 

300 

16.5 

12  Common  Things 
13  Elementary   Science 

75 

75 

150 

150 

150 

150 

6.3 

16  Physical  Training 

150 

150 

150 

150 

2^25 

225 

9.6 

17   Drawing 

Two  or  three  Recit 

ations  per  We 

'k. 

18  Singing 

(SO 

60 

60 

60 

60 

60 

3.8 

19  Manual  Training 

150 

150    |     150 

150 

180 

ISO 

8.2 

20  Sewing 

(150)  |   (150)  |   (150) 

(150) 

(180) 

(180) 

(8.2) 

Total 

1800 

isoo 

1800 

1800 

1800 

1800 

Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each   Subject  in  Each 

Grade. 


3  Writing 

16.6 

16.6 

1 

. 

6  Language 

33.3 

33.3 

33.3 

33.3 

33.3 

33.3 

8  Arithmetic 

12.5 

12.5 

16.6 

16.6 

16.6 

16.6 

9  Geography 
10  History 
11   Civics 

16.6 

16.6 

16.6 

16.6 

16.6 

16.6 

12  Common  Things 
13  Elementary   Science 

4 

4 

8.3 

8.3 

8.3 

8.3 

16  Physical  Training 

8.3 

8.3         8.3 

8.3 

12.S 

12.5 

18  Singing 

3.3 

3.3 

3.3 

3.3 

3.3 

3.3 

19  Manual  Training 

8.3 

8.3 

8.3 

8.3 

10 

10 

20  Sewing 

(8.3)|    (8.3)|    (8.3)|    (8.3)|(10)     |  (10) 

1  Language  includes  reading,  spelling,  dictation,  grammar,  recitation 
and  composition. 

(This  table  was  compiled  from  the  decrees  Issued  by  the  Minister  of 
Education  for  France  Jan.  18th,  1887,  Art.  IX,  XIX,  as  found  in  G.  Com- 
payr6's  "Organisation  Pedagogique,"  supplemented  for  Manual  Training  by 
the  decree  of  Sept  17,  1898,  and  for  Gymnastics  by  the  decree  of  Aug.  8th, 
1890,  published  by  Delalain  Freres,  Paris,  Collection  65.) 

cited  in  the  mornings ;  ( 3 )  Every  lesson  and  every  task  is  to  be 
accomplished  by  explanations  and  questions;  (4)  Corrections 
of  tasks  and  recitation  of  lessons  are  to  take  place  during  the 
hours  to  which  such  tasks  and  recitations  belong;  (5)  There 
shall  be  thirty  hours  per  week  of  recitation,  not  including 
home  study  or  study  in  the  school  room. 

The  schools  continue  at  least  forty  weeks  each  year.     The 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  165 


TABLE  LX. — Minutes  of  Recitation  Time  per  Week  devoted  to  Each 
Subject  in  Each  Grade,  and  the  Percentage  of  Total  Time  given 
to  Each  Subject  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of  Paris. 
Course.  Elementary.        Middle.  Higher. 


Grade. 


II. 


III.   IV. 


V. 


VI.   VII. 


Pet. 


1   Moral   Instruction 

60|         60|         60 

60  1         60 

90 

3.6 

2  Reading 

300  |       300| 

5.5 

3  Writing 

300  1       300 

90 

90  1         90 

60 

8.6 

6  Language,   Including 
(4)   Dictation                   ( 
(5)   Grammar                  j 
(6)   Recitation 
(7)    Composition 

150 
60 

150 
60 

540 

540 

540 

420 

22.8 

8  Mental     Arithmetic     or 
Metric  System 
Arithmetic    and    Metric 
System 

150 

150 

270 

270 

270 

240 

12.5 

6  Geography 
10  History 
11  Civil  Government 

120 

120 

-   210 

210 

210 

210 

10 

12  Common  Things 
13  Physical    &    Natural 
Science 

60 

60 

90 

90 

90 

120 

},s 

16  Gymnastics 
Recreation 

150 
150 

150 
150 

210 

210 

210 

210 

13.3 

17  Drawing 

120|       120|       120|       120|       120 

180 

7.3 

18   Singing 

60|         60|         60|         60J         60 

90 

3.6 

19  Manual    Work 

120|       120|       150|       150|       150 

180    8 

20  Sewing 

(120)|  (120)|  (150)|  (150)|  (150) 

(180)|(8    ) 

Total 


1800 1  1800 1  1800 1  1800 1  1800 1  1800 1 


Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each 

Grade. 


1  Moral  Instruction 


2  Reading 

16.6   |    16.6 

3  Writing 

16.6   |    16.6 

5 

5 

5 

3.3 

6  French    Language 

8.3   |      8.3 

30 

30 

30 

23.2 

8  Arithmetic 

8.3 

8.3 

15 

15 

15 

13.3 

9  Geography 
10  History    & 
11  Civics 

6.6 

6.6 

11.6 

11.6 

11.6 

11.6 

12  Common    Things 
13  Elementary  Science 

3.3 

3.3 

5 

5 

5 

6.6 

16  Gymnastics    & 
Recreation 

16.6 

16.6 

11.6 

11.6 

11.6 

11.6 

17   Drawing 

6.6 

6.6 

6.6 

6.6 

6.6 

10 

18  Singing 

3.3 

3.3 

3.3 

3.3 

3.3 

5 

19  Manual  Work 

6.6 

6.6 

8.3 

8.a 

8.3 

10 

20  Sewing 

(6.6) 

(6.6) 

(8.3) 

(8.3) 

(8.3) 

(10    ) 

average  school  year  is  from  forty-two  to  forty-five  weeks  in 
length.  Usually  there  are  ten  months  of  school  proper ;  July, 
the  eleventh  month,  is  reserved  for  reviews.*  There  are  five 

•Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects,  Vol.  VII.,  p.  99. 


166  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

days  of  school  each  week,  with  a  holiday  Thursday.  Six  hours 
constitute  the  length  of  the  daily  sessions,  three  in  the  morn- 
ing from  eight  to  eleven  o'clock,  three  in  the  afternoon  from 
one  to  four.  Two  hours  are  given  for  recess.  Promotion  does 
not  take  place  by  years  from  grade  to  grade  within  a  "course," 
but  at  the  teacher's  discretion.*  However,  this  amounts 
usually  to  promotion  by  years,  except  from  the  kindergarten 
schools  where  the  transitions  may  occur  three  times  a  year,  at 
October,  January  and  Easter. 

The  French  child  who  attends  this  school  from  his  seventh 
until  his  thirteenth  birthday  has  attended  school  more  hours 
than  the  child  of  the  same  age  in  England,  Germany  or  Amer- 
ica. There  is  no  other  system  which  requires  children  to  at- 
tend school  such  a  large  number  of  hours  a  week.  The  Prussian 
requirement  shown  in  Table  XLIV.  approaches  it  in  the  upper 
grades  but  not  in  the  lower. 

The  American  pupil,  if  he  desires,  probably  remains  in 
school  a  year  longer  than  the  French  pupil  but  our  school  year 
is  much  briefer  than  the  French.  The  American  has  about 
a  scholastic  month  less  each  year.  He  misses  two  years  fur- 
nished by  the  French  Maternal  and  Infant  Schools  and  he  has 
one  school  hour  less  every  day.  Of  course,  however,  the 
special  exemptions  from  the  compulsory  attendance  laws  must 
be  taken  into  account  in  the  individual  system  under  con- 
sideration. 

4.     Time  Allotments  and  Subjects  Emphasized  in  the  Ele- 
mentary Curriculum. 

If  Table  LIX.  be  contrasted  with  any  of  the  preceding  tables 
showing  the  emphasis  placed  upon  different  subjects,  either  by 
the  central  government  or  by  the  majority  of  cities,  several 
differences  are  apparent  as  to  time  allotments.  The  "three 
R's"  do  not  monopolize  and  overbalance  the  curriculum  in 

•Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects,  Vol.  VII.,  p.  87. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  167 

France,  the  percentage  being  48.6  per  cent  of  the  whole — fully 
10  per  cent  less  than  is  devoted  to  this  group  of  studies  in 
America.  This  table  shows  far  more  relative  time  devoted  to 
manual  training,  nature  study,  geography,  history  and  civil 
government,  and  physical  training  than  is  found  in  the  Amer- 
ican tables.  Especially  in  manual  training,  drawing  and 
physical  training  is  this  the  case,  nearly  twice  as  much  time 
being  given  to  manual  training  and  drawing  in  the  French 
city  school  which  is  least  advanced  in  these  subjects  as  in  the 
most  progressive  city  schools  of  America. 

How  shall  we  account  for  this  unusual  decline  in  the  im- 
portance attached  to  the  formal  studies,  and  this  unparalleled 
emphasis  upon  the  content  studies?  If  we  adopt  a  current 
definition  of  content  studies,  which  describes  them  as  those 
studies  leading  more  directly  to  an  insight  into  the  structure  of 
society,  we  can  easily  say  that  the  curriculum  of  France  is  two- 
thirds  given  over  to  content  studies.  How  is  this  to  be  ex- 
plained? The  answer  is  found  in  the  definite  aim  set  up  by 
France  and  in  the  thoroughly  organized  system  by  means  of 
which  all  forces  are  directed  toward  this  end.  Their  principle 
of  selection  is  thus  stated  by  a  recent  French  writer :  ' '  The  Re- 
public was  from  the  first  convinced  that  France,  overcome  by 
misfortunes,  ought  to  find  in  every  citizen  a  soldier  and  in 
every  soldier  an  educated  man. ' '  *  The  validity  of  this  aim 
is  not  to  be  discussed  here;  surely  it  is  better  than  no  aim. 
It  lends  at  once  definiteness  and  liberality  of  judgment  freed 
from  the  slavish  worship  of  the  curriculum  of  bygone  days. 

All  France  regards  the  Primary  School  as  a  civic  institu- 
tion. The  French  teacher  has  a  purely  civic  mission  to  per- 
form as  his  first  duty,  other  educational  considerations  coming 
afterward.  He  must  before  all  else  make  a  French  citizen. 
That  citizen  must  be  a  physical,  an  intellectual  and  a  moral 

•Maurice  Faure,  In  Reports  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1898-99,  p. 
1095. 


168  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

man.  Therefore  all  education  has  three  distinct  divisions. 
The  government  and  municipal  syllabi  show  the  subject  matter 
divided  into  these  three  groups,  with  a  careful  appointment  of 
time  to  each.  After  the  Franco-Prussian  war,  France  needed 
farmers,  artisans  and  soldiers,  all  of  whom  should  be  moral, 
capable  and  full  of  patriotism  to  France.  Hence  the  16.5 
per  cent  of  relative  time  given  to  their  national  history  and 
national  geography,  and  the  6.3  per  cent  to  nature  study 
and  elementary  science  as  applied  to  agriculture  and  horti- 
culture, as  well  as  the  8  per  cent  of  time  devoted  to  manual 
training. 

The  tendency  has  somewhat  changed  in  recent  years  with 
respect  to  the  emphasis  placed  upon  the  special  studies  like 
manual  training,  drawing  and  physical  training.  In  1889 
when  the  need  of  such  studies  reached  its  greatest  prominence 
in  the  public  mind,  the  Department  of  the  Seine,  including  the 
schools  of  Paris,  curtailed  the  time  given  to  moral  training, 
reading,  declamation,  French  language  and  arithmetic,  and 
gave  the  borrowed  time  to  physical  training,  drawing  and 
manual  training.  This  probably  gave  greater  emphasis  to 
the  last  three  subjects  than  they  have  ever  received  in  the 
course  of  study  of  any  city  so  representative  as  Paris.  In 
1898,  however,  the  law  for  the  Department  of  the  Seine 
changed  the  time  devoted  to  certain  subjects  in  the  fourth, 
fifth  and  sixth  grades.  The  subjects  losing  time  were  writ- 
ing, manual  training,  gymnastics  and  recitation.  The  sub- 
jects which  gained  time  were  French  language,  arithmetic 
and  civil  government.  This  marks  a  reversion  to  the  law 
operating  before  the  extreme  emphasis  had  been  placed  upon 
manual  training,  drawing  and  gymnastics.  There  is  yet, 
however,  much  more  time  devoted  to  the  last  three  subjects 
than  is  given  them  in  the  schools  of  the  United  States. 

There  was  one  other  interesting  feature  in  the  experiment 
made  by  the  School  Commissioners  for  Paris,  1889  to  1898. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  169 

In  the  law  of  1889,  manual  training,  drawing  and  singing 
were  distributed  with  little  variation  of  recitation  time  over 
the  three  courses,  elementary,  middle  and  higher.  The 
primary  pupil  was  supposed  to  pursue  these  subjects  with 
only  little  less  ability  than  the  upper  grammar  grade  pupil. 
This  regulation  was  reversed  by  the  law  of  1898.  The  rel- 
ative time  allotment  of  groups  of  subjects  as  it  appears  in 
the  syllabus  of  the  Elementary  Schools  of  Paris  at  present 
is  as  follows: 

Time  per  Week  Devoted  to 
General  Drawing,  Manual     Gymnastics  & 

Course.  Age.         Instruction.*     Training  &  Singing.     Recreation. 

Elementary  7-  9  years  1200  300  300 

Middle  9-11  years  1140  360  300 

Higher  11-13  years  900  540  360 

This  summary  shows  an  increasing  time  allotment  to  special 
studies  in  the  upper  grades  and  a  decreasing  time  allotment 
to  the  general  studies.  It  suggests  that  specialization  is  being 
removed  from  the  lower  grades  to  the  higher.  This  is  cer- 
tainly in  harmony  with  the  American  policy  of  bringing 
electives  as  near  as  possible  to  the  high  school  and  out  of  the 
elementary  grades.  May  this  not  cause  one  to  wonder  if 
France  has  not  learned  a  lesson  and  is  not  attempting  to  re- 
trace her  steps  in  search  of  middle  ground  between  the  formal 
and  the  content  studies?  There  certainly  is  a  valuable  sug- 
gestion in  this  revision  regarding  the  question  of  the  place 
of  electives  and  the  nature  of  the  subjects  of  instruction 
which  should  make  up  the  elective  course. 

5.    The  Striking  Qualities  and  the  Content  of  Particular  Sub- 
jects of  Instruction. 

Let  us  analyze  certain  interesting  subjects  of  instruction 
found  in  Tables  LIX.  and  LX.  in  order  to  ascertain  their 
content  and  their  organized  relation,  as  contrasted  with  the 
same  analysis  of  similar  subjects  in  America.  We  shall  first 

•General    instruction   refers   to   all   other   subjects   found    in   Table   LX. 
except  these  specified  here  in  the  two  columns  to  the  right. 


170  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

consider  what  to  the  Frenchman  is  the  most  important  sub- 
ject in  the  curriculum. 

MORAL  INSTRUCTION.— The  German  and  the  English  ap- 
peal to  the  volitional  and  religious  sentiments  of  their 
school  children  by  teaching  the  Bible  and  religion ;  democratic 
France  claims  that  morality  is  more  universal.  We  are  told 
that  she  is  at  present  subordinating  everything  else  to  moral 
instruction.*  The  effort  of  recent  years  is  to  develop  a  social 
morality,  a  morality  which  will  emphasize  the  virtues  not  as  ab- 
stractions, but  as  they  are  called  for  by  the  relations  between 
people  in  the  community.  The  low  assignment  of  relative 
time  to  this  subject  does  not  indicate  its  importance,  as  the 
Minister  of  Education  has  issued  definite  instructions  to  the 
effect  that  every  lesson,  if  possible,  shall  be  a  lesson  in  morals. 
The  summary  of  the  topics  in  this  subject  prescribed  by  the 
government  syllabus,  is  given  below,  the  numbers  referring 
to  the  grades  in  which  the  topics  are  taught: 

Conversations  and  readings  on  morals,  II.,  III.,  IV.,  V. ; 
instruction  from  observed  facts,  I.,  II.,  III.,  IV. ;  the  child  in 
the  family,  IV.,  V. ;  the  child  in  the  school,  IV.,  V. ;  the  native 
land,  IV.,  V.,  VI.,  VII.;  duties  toward  oneself,  IV.,  V.; 
duties  toward  other  men,  IV.,  V ;  regard  for  animals,  IV.,  V. ; 
social  morality,  VI.,  VII. ;  the  family,  VI.,  VII. ;  conditions 
of  society,  VI.,  VII. ;  alcoholism,  VI.,  VII. ;  duties  of  the  citi- 
zen, VI.,  VII.;  taxes,  VI.,  VII.;  the  ballot,  VI.,  VII.;  rights 
of  the  citizen,  VI.,  VII. ;  personal  liberty,  VI.,  VII. ;  security 
of  life  and  property,  VI.,  VII. ;  the  national  sovereignty,  VI., 
VII.;  difference  between  duty  and  interest,  VI.,  VII.;  dis- 
tinction between  written  and  moral  law,  VI.,  VII. 

The  question  naturally  arises  whether  it  is  worth  while  to 
provide  for  the  teaching  of  morals  and  manners  by  appoint- 
ing a  specific  recitation  in  that  subject  in  the  program.  Will 

•"Educational    Lessons   of   the   Paris    Exposition,"    by   A.    T.    Smith.    In 
Educational  Review,  September,   1901. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  171 

the  children  be  any;  more  polite,  any  more  unselfish,  modest 
and  refined?  Or  is  such  teaching,  as  many  pessimists  claim, 
so  theoretical,  so  far  removed  from  life,  that  the  child  forgets 
to  practice  it  outside  the  school  room? 

Perhaps  no  better  evidence  is  extant  upon  this  subject  than 
that  offered  by  Mr.  Brereton,  who  was  in  1901  appointed  by 
the  Board  of  Education  of  England  to  make  a  careful  per- 
sonal visit  to  the  rural  and  village  schools  of  France,  and  re- 
port to  the  Department.  His  summary  is  as  follows: 

"Of  the  discipline  and  behavior  of  the  pupils  in  every 
grade  and  type  of  school  it  would  be  difficult  to  speak  too 
highly.  Alike  in  the  towns  and  in  the  villages,  on  the  play- 
ground and  in  the  class  room,  courtesy  is  the  invariable  rule. 
The  children  answer  brightly  and  intelligently,  they  like  to 
show  their  work,  and  their  interest  in  the  experimental  and 
practical  lessons  is  very  marked.  Students  in  the  higher 
schools  and  colleges  are  just  as  courteous.  There  is  the  same 
disposition  everywhere  to  assist  a  stranger,  to  answer  all  his 
questions  and  to  tell  him  what  he  wants  to  know.  Even  in 
the  class  rooms  for  older  girls  as  at  Ecole  Menagere  at  Rouen, 
there  is  no  trace  of  'mauvaise  honte'  or  giggling,  and  all  the 
girls,  except  the  one  addressed,  proceed  quietly  with  their 
work.  Of  course  the  same  features  might  be  observed  in 
English  schools,  but  it  is  to  be  feared  that  in  many  of  our 
village  schools  the  appearance  of  a  foreigner  speaking  indif- 
ferent English  and  asking  innumerable  questions  might 
attract  unpleasant  attention.  My  inquiry  led  me  over  a  wide 
area  and  in  no  case  did  I  experience  the  slightest  rudeness 
or  foolish  shyness.  Boys  and  girls  at  play  would  run  off  at 
once  to  fetch  any  one  whom  one  wanted,  while  the  rest  went 
on  with  their  games.  Lightheartedness  and  good  fellowship 
seem  to  pervade  every  school."* 

Truly,  when  the  American  citizen  studies  the  attempt  in 

•Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects,  Vol.  VII.,  p.  255. 


172  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

the  public  elementary  schools  of  the  other  leading  nations 
of  the  world  to  train  a  virtuous  citizen  by  instruction  looking 
directly  to  that  end,  he  must  experience  a  sense  of  regret  and 
shame.  America  alone  makes  no  direct  and  specific  provision 
for  the  moral  or  religious  training  of  her  children  in  the  pub- 
lic schools.  We  too  often  attempt  to  excuse  our  negligence 
by  flippant  derision  of  such  efforts  upon  the  part  of  other 
nations.  Such  wholesale  criticism  ought  not  to  be  expressed 
without  sufficient  evidence.  It  is  suggested,  for  instance, 
that  the  conclusions  in  the  above  quotation  are  not  logically 
drawn,  inasmuch  as  those  results  observed  by  the  English 
educator  may  have  come  from  the  fact  that  the  French  are 
naturally  polite.  This  we  shall  grant  in  part,  but  it  is  not 
universally  agreed  that  good  morals  and  polite  manners  are 
native  instincts  transmitted  through  heredity.  We  believe 
that  the  environment  contributes  more  to  the  making  of  the 
moral  and  courteous  citizen  than  the  particular  parentage 
from  which  he  springs.  At  least  the  public  elementary  school 
is  founded  upon  this  hypothesis.  And  we  are  strongly  of  the 
belief  that  the  definite  aim  of  the  school  to  inculcate  man- 
ners and  morals  lends  much  to  the  totality  of  those  environ- 
mental influences  which  produce  the  French  hospitality  and 
politeness.  Few  students  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  abso- 
lute sincerity  and  earnestness  of  the  French  people  with  re- 
gard to  moral  training,  as  expressed  by  the  publications  of 
the  State  officials  and  the  efforts  of  their  teachers.  There 
may  be  some  excuse  for  the  prejudice  against  the  experiment 
as  it  is  found  in  the  schools  of  a  monarchy,  but  when  the  re- 
sults have  been  found  gratifying  in  the  schools  of  a  demo- 
cratic government  resembling  our  own,  much  of  our  adverse 
criticism  should  give  place  to  constructive  experiments  in 
the  same  direction. 

HANDWORK. — It  has  been  shown  by  previous  statements 
that  the  French  government  in  attempting  to  develop  the 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  173 

useful  citizen  and  an  intelligent  artisan  class  directed  its  at- 
tention toward  manual  training.  This  emphasis  is  mani- 
fested in  the  assignment  of  a  larger  amount  of  time  to  manual 
training  than  is  given  that  subject  in  the  schools  of  any  other 
country.  Another  interesting  feature  of  this  study  is  that 
the  government  not  only  assigns  the  time  but  enumerates  the 
topics  to  be  taught.  In  the  following  summary  relatively 
few  topics  may  be  observed  in  the  six  year  course,  as  con- 
trasted with  similar  work  done  by  our  own  schools.  The 
topics  are  as  follows: 

For  boys:  card  board  cutting,  II.,  III.,  IV.;  basket  work, 
II.,  III.,  IV.;  clay  modeling,  II.,  III.,  IV.;  book-binding,  V., 
VI.;  bent  iron  work,  V.,  VI.;  wood  work,  V.,  VI.;  study  of 
tools,  V.,  VI. ;  drawing  and  modeling,  VI.,  VII. ;  use  of  plane, 
VI.,  VII.;  finishing  and  polishing,  VI.,  VII. 

For  girls:  elementary  sewing,  II.,  III.,  IV.,  V.,  VI.; 
straight  sewing,  whipping  and  seaming,  III.,  IV.,  V.,  VI., 
VII. ;  sewing  on  coarse  cloth,  III.,  IV. ;  sewing  by  design,  III., 
IV.,  V.,  VI.;  mending,  III.,  IV.,  V.,  VI.,  VII;  crochet,  II., 
IV.,  V.,  VI.,  VII.;  knitting,  II.,  III.,  IV.,  V.,  VI., 
VII.;  making  small  garments,  IV.,  V.,  VI.,  VII.;  work  on 
sewing  machine,  VI.,  VII. 

GEOGRAPHY. — Geography  furnishes  another  example  of 
the  importance  attached  in  France  to  an  understanding  of  the 
local  and  national  environment.  The  following  summary  of 
topics  from  that  study  will  show  that  most  of  the  attention 
is  given  to  the  geography  of  France.  The  study  of  the  geog- 
raphy of  other  parts  of  the  world  is  taken  up  in  only  a  few 
lessons  at  the  end  of  the  elementary  school  life.  The  same 
intensely  national  spirit,  mentioned  as  a  reason  for  the  un- 
usual allotment  to  geography  and  history,  is  exemplified  in 
the  selection  of  topics  in  geography.  The  topics  and  the 
grades  in  which  they  are  taught  are :  the  cardinal  points,  II., 
III.;  the  weather,  II.,  III.;  geographical  terms,  II., 


174  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

III.;  home  geography,  II.,  III.;  features  of  local  geography, 
II.,  III. ;  map  study,  II.,  III. ;  France  and  her  colonies,  IV., 
V.,  VI.,  VII.;  map  drawing,  IV.,  V.,  VI.,  VII.;  political 
geography  of  France,  IV.,  V.;  physical  and  political  geog- 
raphy of  Europe,  VI.,  VII. ;  geography  of  the  world,  VI.,  VII. 

HISTORY. — History  is  taught  in  the  same  grades  as  geog- 
raphy, and  special  emphasis  is  given  in  its  study  to  the  civil 
government  of  France.  No  table  heretofore  presented  shows 
such  a  splendid  opportunity  for  correlation  as  does  the  French 
arrangement  of  nature  study,  geography  and  history.  The 
same  willingness  to  omit  all  except  the  indispensable,  which 
has  been  found  to  be  the  characteristic  of  geography  and  his- 
tory teaching  in  German  schools,  as  distinguished  from  our 
own,  is  to  be  remarked  in  the  schools  of  France.  The  topics 
and  grades  are : 

National  history,  I.,  II.,  III.,  elementary  French  history 
to  the  Hundred  Years'  War,  II.,  III.;  elementary  French 
history  since  the  Hundred  Years'  War,  IV.,  V.;  review  of  the 
history  of  France,  VI.,  VII. ;  notions  of  general  history,  VI., 
VII.;  notions  of  antiquity,  VI.,  VII.;  notions  of  medieval 
and  modern  history,  VI.,  VII.;  current  events,  VI.,  VII. 

In  the  outline  of  history  offered  by  Gabriel  Compayre  in 
his  book  "Organisation  Pedagogique"  (pp.  108-115),  in  the 
six  years'  course  under  discussion  only  three  months  out  of 
forty-four  contain  topics  that  might  be  included  under  any 
other  than  French  history. 

LANGUAGE.— We  shall  not  take  space  to  give  an  analysis 
of  the  subject  matter  in  language.  There  are  two  peculiari- 
ties, however,  which  ought  to  be  mentioned.  A  large  amount 
of  national  literature  is  taught  in  both  France  and  America. 
It  is  barely  possible  that  in  democratic  countries  it  is  of  more 
vital  importance  that  the  national  literature  receive  greater 
prominence ;  but,  however  that  may  be,  much  of  the  time  for 
language  study  is  given  to  formal  grammar  in  Germany  and 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  175 

England.  The  other  feature,  peculiar  to  France,  is  that  the 
large  amount  of  time  devoted  to  composition  writing  is  given 
over  to  making  brief  summaries  of  good  literature,  a  practice 
worthy  of  emulation  elsewhere. 

AEITHMETIC. — The  analysis  of  topics  in  arithmetic  is 
given  below  merely  to  corroborate  an  opinion  already  offered, 
to  the  effect  that  overcrowding  in  the  American  curriculum 
is  due  largely  to  the  lack  of  good  organization  of  the  sub- 
otpics  in  the  various  studies  and  to  unwillingness  to  omit 
those  topics  that  have  no  great  usefulness  to  the  child  or 
society.  It  will  be  noticed  that  there  are  far  fewer  topics  in 
arithmetic  than  are  found  in  Table  XIV.  for  ten  American 
schools,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  this  table  was  pre- 
scribed not  for  ten  schools  but  for  all  the  schools  of  France. 
It  also  appears  that  certain  fundamental  topics  are  taught 
within  a  few  grades  and  dispensed  with,  whereas  with  us  they 
are  repeated  in  all  the  grades.  The  topics  are:  numeration, 
addition,  subtraction,  multiplication,  II.,  III.;  division, 
weights  and  measures,  II.,  III.,  IV.,  V.,  VI.,  VII.;  mental 
arithmetic,  II.,  III. ;  review  of  previous  courses,  IV.,  V.,  VI., 
VII. ;  fractions,  IV.,  V.,  VI.,  VII. ;  decimal  fractions,  IV.,  V. ; 
proportion,  IV.,  V. ;  simple  interest,  IV.,  V.,  VI.,  VII. ;  prime 
factors,  greatest  common  multiple,  discount,  partnership, 
metric  system,  book-keeping,  VI.,  VII. ;  geometry,  II.,  III.,  IV., 
V.,  VI.,  VII. 

PHYSICAL  TRAINING. — It  would  not  be  proper  to  close 
the  discussion  of  the  content  and  emphasis  of  the  individual 
subjects  of  instruction  without  noticing  what  is  most  con- 
spicuous in  the  curriculum  of  the  French  schools,  viz.,  the 
great  importance  attached  to  physical  training.  Its  relative 
importance  is  shown  in  the  allotment  of  9.6  per  cent  of  the 
total  school  time  of  all  French  schools  to  physical  training. 
In  Paris  13.3  per  cent  of  the  total  recitation  time  is  given 
to  it.  The  law  for  the  schools  of  the  Republic  requires  that 


176  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

two  hours  per  day  shall  be  given  to  physical  exercise,  includ- 
ing recess  and  recreation.  Manual  training  and  calisthenics 
furnish  extra  exercise.  As  they  enter  school  in  the  mornings 
and  afternoons  all  children  are  required  to  be  inspected  for 
physical  cleanliness,  these  periods  being  reserved  on  each  pro- 
gram. We  are  told  that  if  they  do  not  pass  muster  they 
are  rushed  off  without  hesitation  to  the  bath  rooms,  with 
which  many  of  the  schools  are  provided.  The  schools  of 
Paris  are  medically  inspected  twice  a  month;  the  Maternal 
Schools  are  visited  once  a  week  by  a  physician;  official  regu- 
lations forbid  the  teaching  of  sewing  to  small  children,  for 
hygienic  reasons;  the  teachers  are  required  to  be  present  on 
the  play  grounds  during  recess  periods  to  direct  the  play  of 
the  children.  These  are  only  a  few  of  the  regulations  re- 
garding the  physical  development  of  the  child  intrusted  to 
the  care  of  the  State.  Certainly,  there  is  no  such  painstaking 
care  for  the  health  of  the  American  child  on  the  part  of  the 
State,  and  the  assignment  of  time  for  that  purpose  which  has 
been  shown  on  previous  pages  does  not  make  such  care  pos- 
sible in  the  schools  of  the  United  States. 

6.    Organic  Unity  in  the  Course  of  Study. 

Viewing  the  curriculum  of  France  in  all  its  relations  we 
are  forced  to  conclude  that  centralization  under  State  control 
is  the  lesson  which  France  has  for  us.  Its  perfectly  de- 
veloped bureaucratic  organization,  and  its  clearly  conceived 
plan  for  the  whole  of  the  educational  system  guarantees  suc- 
cess in  its  undertakings.  Every  man  knows  his  work.  Each 
teacher  is  in  full  possession  of  the  State's  policy  as  it  applies 
to  every  school  of  a  given  type.  The  most  perfectly  trained 
educational  experts  of  the  nation  are  in  the  government's 
service,  usually  as  leaders  in  the  central  offices.  Such  a  com- 
pany must  of  necessity  inspire  the  confidence  and  emulation 
of  the  great  mass  of  teachers  in  the  service  of  elementary 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  177 

schools.  By  means  of  the  connection  maintained  through 
the  inspectors  sent  out  from  the  central  bureau,  there  arises 
a  cooperation  between  the  teachers  of  the  various  localities 
and  the  central  authority,  which  makes  it  possible  to  accom- 
plish definite  results. 

The  first  of  the  achievements  attained  by  this  perfectly 
articulated  system  is  an  almost  ideal  uniformity  regarding 
the  particulars  of  the  elementary  curriculum.  Practically  all 
studies  begun  by  the  child  who  enters  school  at  five  or  six  years 
of  age  are  continued  by  him  in  some  form  until  he  is  thirteen. 
The  only  changes  noted  are  those  referring  to  the  amplifica- 
tion of  the  course  in  history  so  as  to  include  civics, 
the  extension  of  ornamental  drawing  so  as  to  include  linear 
drawing,  and  the  direction  of  elementary  science  and  nature 
study  toward  horticulture  and  agriculture  by  means  of  the 
school  garden.  It  has  already  been  shown  that  such  a  per- 
fect balancing  of  the  formal  and  the  content,  the  abstract  and 
and  concrete,  the  theoretical  and  the  practical,  cannot  be 
found  in  any  of  the  other  systems  of  education.  This  obser- 
vation is  especially  pertinent  to  the  schools  of  the  United 
States. 

Tables  LIX.  and  LX.  display  types  of  a  course  of  study 
having  such  perfection  of  articulation  and  such  unified  parts, 
that  the  admission  or  omission  of  any  study  would  require 
the  remodeling  of  the  entire  course.  This  curriculum  above 
all  others,  therefore,  must  be  regarded  as  a  unified  whole  and 
not  as  a  collection  of  unrelated  parts.  No  new  subject,  or 
even  new  topic,  could  be  included  unless  called  for  by  some 
new  need  of  society  which  had  worked  itself  out  into  definite 
form.  The  piecework  and  patchwork  method  of  tagging  on 
every  new  "ology"  to  an  already  overcrowded  curriculum, 
apart  from  its  relation  to  human  needs  as  expressed  in  the 
welfare  of  the  social  group,  could  find  no  place  in  a  course 
of  study  so  organically  related  as  that  of  France.  The 


178  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

French  genius  for  systematic  organization,  as  displayed  in  the 
uniformity  of  the  elementary  curriculum,  has  taught  the 
pedagogic  world  that  definite  results  respecting  social  effi- 
ciency can  be  accomplished  only  when  a  certain  symmetry 
and  connectedness  of  parts  exists  within  the  entire  course  of 
study. 

The  common  objection  raised  to  such  unified  courses  of 
study  is  that  they  do  not  provide  for  the  individual  interests, 
character  and  capacities  of  the  child.  The  answer  made  is 
that  the  public  elementary  schools  cannot  and  probably  should 
not  primarily  make  such  allowances.  The  large  work  of  the 
people's  schools  is  to  raise  to  a  higher  level  the  mass  of  citi- 
zens who  attend  only  these  schools,  not  to  interest  themselves 
in  a  few  geniuses  to  the  neglect  of  the  rank  and  file.  The 
larger  group  must  be  protected  against  casualties,  and  this 
can  only  be  done  by  uniformity  of  system  and  subject  matter. 

7.     The  Controlling  Influence  of  the  Needs  of  Society  and  the 
Demands  of  the  Environment. 

Moreover  there  is  evidence  for  the  belief  that,  for  indi- 
vidual differences  as  expressed  in  individual  environments, 
the  French  plan  is  as  capable  of  securing  a  wide  selection, 
and  in  fact  does  secure  such  selection,  as  much  as  any  other 
plan.  For  the  French  authorities  insist  that  in  the  program 
which  they  prescribe,  it  is  assumed  that  the  subject  most  im- 
portant in  the  social  life  of  a  given  community  will  be 
handled  more  at  length  and  more  thoroughly  than  one  which 
has  no  such  close  relation  to  the  immediate  environment.* 
No  school  system  has  more  completely  committed  itself  than 
the  French  to  the  principle  of  the  supreme  importance  of  the 
social  needs  and  therefore  of  the  environmental  need  of  its 
pupils,  as  a  determining  factor  in  the  choice  of  the  subject 
matter  of  the  curriculum.  This  has  determined  the  standard 

•Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects,  Vol.  VII.,  p.  140. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  179 

of  omission  and  admission  of  subjects,  and  it  will  account,  for 
instance,  for  the  unusual  amount  of  motor-active  subjects  al- 
ready discussed  in  this  study.  It  is  to  be  remarked  again  that 
this  standard  is  largely  responsible  for  the  proper  balancing 
and  ordering  of  material  in  the  French  curriculum. 

8.     Correlation. 

Correlation  is  the  logical  outcome  of  the  two  characteristics 
discussed  in  the  preceding  paragraphs.  The  well-known 
English  educator,  Mr.  Cloudesley  Brereton;  has  summarized 
the  methods  and  matter  aiding  correlation  in  the  French  cur- 
riculum in  his  excellent  study  of  French  schools.  He  says: 

"The  moral  of  the  whole  curriculum  of  French  primary 
education  will  be  lost  on  English  readers  if  they  have  not 
seen,  from  the  brief  notes  on  ordinary  subjects,  and  the  de- 
tailed examination  of  agricultural  education,  the  way  in  which 
the  subjects  not  only  dovetail  into  one  another  but  overlap, 
with  the  result  of  producing,  not  indeed  confusion,  but  co- 
hesion. Thus  the  reading  lesson  is  drawn  on  for  moral  edu- 
cation, moral  education  in  its  turn  draws  upon  the  history 
book,  history  is  worked  in  with  geography,  geography, 
through  its  physical  features,  finds  its  basis  in  science,  science 
again  is  the  point  of  departure  for  agriculture,  which  coalesces 
with  arithmetic  in  the  agricultural  accounts,  and  in  geometry, 
the  practical  geometry  is  connected  with  drawing,  and  draw- 
ing with  writing,  the  writing  is  worked  through  the  spelling 
and  the  reading  book,  out  of  which  springs  the  recitation, 
which  forms  with  it  the  happy  hunting  ground  for  the  gram- 
mar questions.  Thus  the  whole  gamut  of  subjects  is  not 
only  related  but  inter-related  and  finally  correlated.  And 
now  perhaps  it  is  plain  how  impossible  it  is  to  isolate  such  a 
subject  as  moral  instruction,  agriculture,  etc.,  that  cannot  be 
severed  from  the  whole  curriculum  without  mutilating  it, 
by  cutting  into  at  the  time  certain  integral  portions  of  other 


180  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

subjects,  for  the  parts  of  the  curriculum  are  not  really  de- 
tachable as  the  parts  of  a  watch,  they  are  members  of  the 
corpus  of  studies  that  make  up  the  program  of  elementary 
education."* 


•Special  Reports  on  Educational  Subjects,  Vol.  VII.,  p.  139. 


CHAPTER  V. 

CONCLUSION. 

1.     The  Two  Controlling  Standards  in  the  Selection  of  Sub- 
ject Matter  in  the  Elementary  Curriculum. 

In  the  four  previous  chapters  the  curricula  of  the  public 
elementary  schools  of  the  United  States,  England,  Germany 
and  France  have  been  examined  in  order  to  discover  the 
actual  matter  and  arrangement  of  the  subjects  of  instruction. 
This  study  has  called  attention  more  especially  to  the  content 
of  the  curricula,  the  distribution  by  grades  of  the  subjects 
of  study,  the  time  both  actual  and  relative  allotted  to  each 
subject,  the  analysis  of  the  content  of  the  respective  subjects, 
and  the  relative  importance  attached  to  various  subjects.  An 
attempt  has  been  made  to  answer  the  question  as  to  what  the 
real  course  of  study  in  the  elementary  school  is  in  all  its  vari- 
ous phases.  The  conclusions  regarding  various  problems 
raised  at  the  beginning  of  this  investigation  have  been  stated 
in  the  proper  place.  But  before  quitting  the  subject  it  is 
perhaps  best  to  restate  these  conclusions  and  implications. 

In  the  first  place,  it  should  not  be  concluded  that  our  study 
assumes  that  the  mere  existence  of  a  subject  with  a  given  time 
allotment  in  a  certain  curriculum  of  one  of  these  school  sys- 
tems is  proof  positive  of  its  absolute  and  universal  validity. 
The  idea  is  advanced,  however,  that  the  presence  of  a  subject 
in  a  large  number  of  the  curricula  gives  some  probability  of 
its  worth.  For  it  is  not  fair  to  assume  that  these  courses  of 
study  were  aimlessly  constructed  without  the  presence  of 

181 


182  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

reason  or  definitely  conceived  guiding  principles.  Certainly 
some  of  the  educators  responsible  for  these  courses  of  study, 
especially  in  France  and  Germany,  represent  the  most  pro- 
found thinkers  in  educational  matters.  These  educational 
experts  must  have  developed  their  courses  of  study  upon 
some  set  of  principles  answering  a  general  need  of  humanity, 
else  there  could  not  have  resulted  such  uniformity  in  curricula 
designed  to  meet  the  needs  of  very  different  peoples.  No  one 
can  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  fact  that  the  general  prin- 
ciples which  govern  the  selection  and  arrangement  of  the  sub- 
ject matter  of  the  elementary  curriculum  are  practically  the 
same  in  the  four  educational  systems  here  studied.  From 
time  to  time  in  these  pages,  certain  clearly  perceived  guiding 
principles  have  emerged,  which  are  common  more  or  less  to 
all  school  systems,  and  attention  has  been  called  to  them. 

It  is  only  necessary  in  conclusion  to  recall  those  principles 
which  seem  to  constitute  the  most  frequent  criteria  for  the  se- 
lection and  omission  of  the  subject  matter  of  the  curriculum, 
as  well  as  those  which  serve  as  guides  for  the  arrangement 
and  distribution  of  such  subject  matter.  We  shall  be  forced 
to  content  ourselves  again  with  the  briefest  statement  of  those 
principles,  believing  that  their  development  has  been  so  well 
displayed  by  others  as  to  make  them  self-evident  to  expe- 
rienced educators.*  The  only  excuse  for  stating  them  again 
is  because  they  have  not  seemed  to  be  as  frequently  applied 
or  implied  in  the  American  curricula  as  in  others  which  have 
been  presented. 

The  two  fundamental  questions  regarding  the  curriculum 
are,  first,  What  are  the  needs  of  the  civilization  in  which  the 

•Those  wishing  a  fuller  treatment  of  the  two  controlling  standards  In 
the  selection  and  arrangement  of  the  subject  matter  of  the  curriculum  may 
find  It  In  the  following  publications:  by  Dr.  John  Dewey,  (1)  Ethical  Prin- 
ciples underlying  Education,  (2)  The  School  and  Society,  (3)  The  Child  and 
the  Curriculum,  (4)  Primary  Education  Fetish  (in  Forum,  Vol.  25),  (5)  In- 
terest as  related  to  Will ;  by  Dr.  W.  T.  Harris,  Psychologic  Foundations  of 
Education ;  by  Prof.  John  S.  Mackenzie,  Introduction  to  Social  Philosophy ; 
by  Dr.  F.  M.  McMurry,  Advisable  Omissions  from  the  Elementary  Curric- 
ulum, and  the  Basis  for  Them  (in  Educational  Review,  May,  1004). 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  183 

child  is  to  play  an  active  part  ?  and  second,  What  is  the  nature 
of  the  child  who  is  to  be  fitted  to  this  civilization?  Briefly, 
education  has  to  do  with  the  experience  of  the  race  and  the 
experience  of  the  child;  the  activities  of  the  race  and  the 
activities  of  the  child;  the  needs  of  society  and  the  needs  of 
the  child.  The  curriculum  must,  then,  provide  for  the  socio- 
logical and  the  psychological  aspects  of  human  life.  We  take 
up  the  sociological  first. 

Society  undertakes  to  transmit  the  experience  and  ideals 
of  the  race  and  it  chooses  the  school  as  an  agency  for  this 
transmission.  The  school  is  fundamentally  a  social  institu- 
tion, set  up  by  society  for  its  own  protection,  i.  e.,  for  the 
preservation  of  the  best  of  its  experience  and  ideals.  It  is,  in 
short,  the  function  of  the  school  to  adjust  or  relate  the  indi- 
viduals of  the  social  group  to  the  social  whole  of  which  they 
are  parts.  In  this  fact  we  find  the  controlling  standard  in 
the  selection  of  the  subject  matter  in  education.  Briefly 
stated,  this  principle  is  that  the  needs  of  society  should  de- 
termine the  selection  of  the  subjects  and  topics  of  study  in 
the  elementary  school.  These  needs  are  discovered  by  observ- 
ing the  activities  of  society.  What  the  adult  group  is  doing 
and  thinking  in  life,  the  child  will  in  all  likelihood  have  to 
do  and  think.  Therefore  if  society  controls  the  school  it 
should  mould  the  curriculum.  The  teacher  is  to  make  up  his 
course  of  study  from  life's  problems  and  needs,  and  he  has 
no  moral  right  to  select  his  subject  matter  from  other  sources. 
This  social  standard  is  really  what  we  have  found  as  the 
criterion  for  the  selection  of  material  of  instruction  in  the 
majority  of  curricula  of  the  four  elementary  school  systems 
just  studied.  Whenever  we  have  not  found  it  in  operation 
we  have  had  occasion  to  criticise  the  selection  and  arrange- 
ment of  subjects  and  topics,  as  well  as  the  allotment  of  time. 

The  use  of  this  standard,  like  charity,  must  begin  at  home. 
Numerous  cases  of  foreign  curricula  are  therefore  presented, 


184  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

illustrating  the  attempt  to  permit  the  needs  of  the  immediate 
environment  to  control  in  the  selection  and  arrangement  of 
the  subjects  and  topics  of  instruction.  We  have  had  to  con- 
demn our  own  schools  for  failure  in  this  respect.  We  in 
America  have  emphasized  subjects  and  topics  for  their  re- 
mote value  rather  than  those  which  satisfy  the  pressing  needs 
of  the  child's  life  and  society's  demand  in  the  present.  Our 
curriculum  too  much  suggests  that  the  elementary  school  is 
only  a  preparation  for  life,  rather  than  life  itself.  The  sub- 
ject matter  and  method  in  the  public  elementary  school  must 
be  a  duplicate  in  miniature  of  the  work  and  method  of  life 
outside  the  school,  before  the  school  can  claim  to  fulfill  the 
function  for  which  society  supports  it.  Examples  of  the 
monopoly  of  time  by  studies  that  prepare  for  the  high  school 
and  for  the  college,  are  found  in  our  public  elementary  schools 
where  ninety-five  per  cent  of  the  children  do  not  attend  high 
school  and  ninety-nine  do  not  attend  college,  but  are  drawn 
into  the  vortex  of  the  struggle  for  life  with  only  the  element- 
ary school  training.  Hence  the  need  among  officials  of  the 
American  elementary  schools  for  a  realization  of  the  absolute 
authority  of  the  social  standard  in  the  selection  of  the  matter 
of  instruction  in  the  elementary  schools. 

In  order  that  the  individual  may  become  organically  re- 
lated to  the  whole  of  society,  he  must  become  acquainted  with 
the  structure  of  the  social  experience  and  with  the  instru- 
mentalities by  which  it  is  communicated  from  age  to  age.  A 
study,  to  contribute  to  the  social  good,  must  be  a  brief  repre- 
sentation of  the  structure  of  society  or  a  type  of  the  instru- 
mentalities by  which  society  carries  itself  along.  The  meas- 
ure of  a  study  is  its  capacity  for  developing,  within  the  indi- 
vidual, social  efficiency  and  insight. 

The  predominance  of  the  needs  of  society  in  the  selection 
of  the  subject  matter  is  what  we  have  referred  to  as  the  social 
standard.  The  question  to  be  asked  about  any  subject  of  in- 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  185 

struction  is,  what  is  its  worth  in  meeting  the  demands  which 
society  will  place  upon  the  student?  Likewise,  in  determin- 
ing the  importance  of  a  subject,  how  much  time  shall  be  as- 
signed to  it,  and  what  topics  shall  be  taught  and  emphasized 
in  each  subject,  the  questions  to  ask  are :  For  how  much  does 
it  count  in  real  life?  How  much  does  the  ideal  citizen  need 
this  subject  or  topic?  Is  it  representative  of  social  life?  If 
the  American  school  could  apply  this  strenuous  standard  as 
severely  as  it  is  found  applied  in  some  of  the  better  curricula 
of  the  foreign  schools  studied  on  the  previous  pages,  much 
waste  of  time  might  be  avoided,  and  great  unification  and 
concentration  of  power  result. 

In  the  mind  of  the  sympathetic  teacher  the  question  always 
arises :  Shall  not  the  nature,  needs,  and  interests  of  the  child 
count  for  something?  Is  society  everything  and  the  child 
nothing  but  a  part  of  the  great  mass  of  "dumb  driven  cat- 
tle?" Are  individuality  and  personality  to  have  no  freedom 
of  growth?  Must  all  be  conformed,  Chinese-like,  to  the  gen- 
eral pattern  set  by  social  heritage?  Is  it  true  that  "the 
individual  withers,  and  the  world  is  more  and  more?" 

While  at  first  thought  the  social  standard  just  discussed 
seems  to  oppose  the  ideas  championed  in  these  questions,  the 
conflict  is  only  apparent.  In  reality,  the  nature  of  the  child 
has  had  its  share  of  influence  in  the  arrangement  if  not  in 
the  selection  of  subject  matter  in  the  curricula  outlined  in 
the  four  preceding  chapters.  Certainly  the  capacity  and  the 
native  interests  of  childhood  dictate  more  than  any  other 
principle  the  location  of  the  subjects  and  topics  by  grades  in 
the  elementary  school.  Society  may  tell  us  what  to  teach, 
but  the  child  alone  will  dictate  to  us  when  and  how  to  teach  it. 

Furthermore,  if  the  experience  and  needs  of  society  are 
the  end  points  in  education,  it  is  certainly  true  that  the  expe- 
rience and  needs  of  the  child  are  the  beginning  points.  There 
can  be  nothing  grafted  on  from  without  for  which  there  has 


186  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

been  no  adequate  preparation  in  the  child's  experience. 
Psychologically,  there  should  be  nothing  prescribed  in  a 
course  of  study  which  is  not  within  the  bounds  of  the  child's 
capacities,  experience  and  interests,  for  nothing  beyond  the 
bounds  of  his  experience  is  comprehensible  to  the  child  until 
worked  over  in  terms  of  his  own  experience.  It  is  a  com- 
monly granted  psychological  principle  today  that  the  native 
powers  of  the  child  are  the  primary  factors  in  his  acquirement 
of  social  experience.  The  nature  of  his  impulses  and  instincts 
determines  very  largely  how  we  shall  direct  him  in  the  acqui- 
sition of  the  social  experience  which  we  have  discussed  as  the 
end  point  in  education.  And,  in  fact,  they  determine  what 
phases  of  social  life  the  child  can  assimilate  at  all.  There  are 
certain  needs  in  society  for  which  certain  children  can  never 
be  fitted,  simply  because  of  the  lack  in  their  natures  of  powers 
by  which  to  apperceive  the  given  social  requirement.  Again 
we  can  say  that  while  society  tells  us  what  to  teach  it  is  the 
nature  of  the  child  which  tells  us  how  to  teach  it.  For  in- 
stance, while  the  needs  of  society  decide  for  us  whether  gram- 
mar shall  be  taught,  the  interests,  capacities  and  experience 
of  the  child  decide  how  early  it  should  be  taught,  and,  most 
important  of  all,  whether  it  shall  be  taught  through  the  em- 
ployment of  rich  emotional  literature,  or  through  the  use  of 
a  book  of  abstract  rules  known  as  grammar. 

In  concluding  this  discussion  of  the  controlling  principles 
in  the  elementary  curriculum,  we  should  repeat  that  there 
are  two  points  of  view  in  the  curriculum,  the  one  sociological, 
the  other  psychological.  The  one  views  the  curriculum  as  a 
finished  product  and  thinks  of  it  in  terms  of  value ;  the  other 
views  it  as  a  factor  in  a  process,  and  thinks  of  the  impulses, 
instincts  and  undeveloped  powers  of  the  child  which  are  to 
be  realized  through  the  process  of  education  by  means  of 
the  study.  One  point  of  view  has  to  do  with  the  product  and 
is  logical ;  the  other  has  to  do  with  the  process  and  is  genetic. 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  187 

The  sociological,  which  represents  the  fundamental  needs, 
activities,  structure  and  instrumentalities  of  social  life,  should 
have  preeminent  control ;  the  psychological,  which  includes 
the  capacities,  needs,  interests  and  impulses  of  the  individual 
child  should  have  the  largest  consideration  consistent  with 
the  social  standard  in  the  selection  and  arrangement  of  the 
subject  matter  of  instruction. 

2.    Conclusions  Re-Stated. 

Perhaps  the  most  vital  and  pressing  question  regarding 
the  elementary  curriculum  of  city  schools  in  America  is  the 
cry  arising  from  teachers  and  parents  that  the  curriculum  is 
overcrowded.  The  complaint  indicates  that  too  much  is  be- 
ing attempted  to  insure  successful  work  on  the  part  of  teacher 
or  pupils.  Confusion  of  mind,  divided  attention  and  nervous 
strain  are  results  following  overcrowding.  It  has  been 
shown  on  previous  pages  that  the  great  increase  in  the  num- 
ber of  subjects  of  instruction  and  more  especially  the  in- 
creased number  of  topics  in  the  syllabi  prescribed  by  the 
American  school  authorities  may  be  largely  responsible  for 
this  complaint.  At  any  rate,  a  smaller  number  of  time  allot- 
ments and  of  topics  in  the  large  subjects  were  found  to  be 
required  of  teachers  in  other  countries.  The  fact  is  that  the 
more  severe  application  of  the  social  standard  and  the  will- 
ingness to  freely  omit  subjects  and  topics  not  in  harmony 
with  that  standard,  are  responsible  for  the  absence  of  this 
complaint  among  foreign  educators.  The  implication  to  be 
noticed  here  is,  of  course,  that  the  same  standard  and  the  same 
practice  would  relieve  the  American  city  schools  which  are 
now  complaining  of  overcrowding.  On  the  other  hand,  many 
of  the  schools  of  America  have  declined  to  so  enrich  the 
course  of  study  as  to  meet  the  needs  of  society  and  the  child. 
Here  again  our  social  standard  will  assist  us. 

In  Table  LXIII.  may  be  found  the  suggestions  drawn  from 


188  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

this  study  with  reference  to  this  question.  Briefly,  the  sug- 
gestion to  those  schools  in  America  which  do  not  count  for 
much  in  the  lives  of  the  citizens  near  to  them,  would  be  to 
decrease  the  time  allotted  to  the  abstract  subjects,  whose 
chief  recommendation  is  their  value  as  mental  discipline,  and 
to  increase  the  time  allotted  to  those  more  concrete  subjects 
which  lead  more  directly  to  a  comprehension  of  the  structure, 
needs  and  activities  of  human  life.  A  sufficient  mental  dis- 
cipline may  be  furnished  by  studies  which  develop  the  ability 
to  participate  in  human  affairs.  Moreover,  we  should  sug- 
gest from  the  foregoing  study  that  there  is  more  in  life  than 
intellectuality.  The  volitional,  the  emotional,  the  aesthetic, 
the  physical  count  for  very  much  more  in  the  lives  of  the 
average  citizen  than  does  the  intellectual  aspect  of  life.  In- 
tellectuality is  a  means  to  an  end  with  most  people  and  not 
an  end  in  itself.  We  wish  to  know  in  order  to  do.  Doing 
and  not  abstract  thinking  has  constituted  and  will  for  some 
time  constitute  the  employment  of  the  great  majority  of  all 
persons  attending  the  public  elementary  schools  of  America. 

The  lack  of  organic  unity  in  the  American  course  of  study 
presents  the  one  striking  contrast  between  the  curriculum  of 
our  country  and  some  others  presented  in  this  paper.  Sub- 
jects are  grafted  on  to  the  elementary  school  course  of  study 
from  the  high  school  without  previous  preparation  for  them 
in  the  earlier  primary  grades,  apparently  on  the  assumption 
that  the  elementary  course  is  a  mechanical  mass  of  unrelated 
parts.  Subjects  are  dropped  after  a  year  or  two,  or  are  be- 
gun at  any  point  in  the  eight  years.  The  psychological  de- 
mand for  organic  relations,  unity  and  symmetry  is  almost 
ignored  in  the  American  school  curriculum.  The  child  is 
not  introduced  to  a  symmetrical  whole,  but  to  an  aggregation 
of  isolated  parts,  broken  into  by  unreasonable  gaps  of  time 
allotments  and  lapses  of  months  and  years  of  recitation  time. 

This  chaos  occasioned  by  the  lack  of  organic  relation  be- 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  189 

tween  the  subject  matter  of  one  grade  and  that  of  another, 
would  seem  to  find  its  ultimate  explanation  in  the  assumption 
on  the  part  of  the  curriculum  builders  that  the  elementary 
school  is  a  college  preparatory  school.  Educators  of  other 
nations  claim  that  the  public  elementary  school  is  not  a  school 
whose  primary  business  is  the  preparation  of  students  for 
college.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  scarcely  one  per  cent  of  those 
attending  the  school  ever  attend  college.  Hence  it  is  thor- 
oughly undemocratic  to  allow  a  one  per  cent  minority  to  con- 
trol a  ninety-nine  per  cent  majority.  The  foreigner  inti- 
mates that  a  curriculum  built  on  this  plan  is  despotic  to  a 
degree  not  found  in  monarchical  governments.  We  retort 
that  the  foreign  plan  of  erecting  one  school  for  those  who 
attend  a  college  and  a  different  one  for  those  who  may  not 
attend  college  is  a  sanction  if  not  a  guarantee  of  the  caste 
system. 

We  further  compliment  our  own  system  by  asserting  its 
claim  to  offer  an  equal  opportunity  to  all,  which  is  undoubt- 
edly sound  democracy.  To  the  wisdom  of  this  principle  Eng- 
land would  assent,  for  her  curriculum  like  ours  offers  both 
those  subjects  that  may  be  serviceable  for  immediate  life  and 
also  a  list  which  prepare  for  college,  with  the  privilege  on  the 
part  of  the  student  of  electing  which  he  shall  pursue.  France 
and  Germany  practically  oppose  such  a  plan.  They  claim 
that  the  organic  unity  of  the  whole  curriculum  is  destroyed 
by  the  attempt  to  incorporate  the  two  aims,  and  that  the 
subject  matter  which  leads  directly  into  social  life  leads 
away  from  a  preparation  for  college  life,  and  vice  versa. 
Therefore,  they  erect  the  public  elementary  school  to  do  one 
thing  and  another  type  of  school  to  do  the  other. 

In  a  study  of  elementary  schools  which  aims  to  state  con- 
clusions contained  in  the  facts  investigated  and  not  to  pursue 
a  personal  and  opinionated  discussion  of  those  conclusions, 
these  two  opposing  ideals  are  left  to  the  consideration  of  the 


190  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

reader.  It  would  seem  that  while  all  four  countries  claim  to 
be  aiming  at  equality  of  opportunity  to  the  pupil  and  organic 
relation  in  the  curriculum,  England  and  America  do  probably 
succeed  more  in  accomplishing  the  former  end,  while  Germany 
and  France  succeed  in  the  latter  end. 

The  absence  of  any  central  authority  which  would  serve 
as  a  unifying  agency  between  the  different  city  school  courses 
of  study  is  one  source  of  waste  in  the  American  schools. 
There  is  no  guarantee  of  uniformity  even  between  two  schools 
only  a  short  distance  apart.  Railway  communications  have 
connected  the  individual,  social  and  intellectual  life  of  adja- 
cent communities;  the  isolation  of  educational  life  as  pro- 
vided for  in  the  schools  still  remains  a  glaring  anachronism 
in  our  civilization.  Some  modification  of  the  semi-bureau- 
cratic system  of  England,  which  would  insure  unity  among 
the  various  cities  within  a  given  state,  has  been  suggested. 
Such  a  central  authority  should  still  make  due  allowance  for 
local  control  and  environmental  peculiarities. 

The  absence  of  the  teaching  of  the  Bible  or  morals  in  our 
schools  is  regarded  as  a  weakness  by  many  foreigners.  As 
regards  Bible  teaching,  it  has  been  suggested  that  either  Ger- 
many's or  England's  example  might  be  followed  by  us  with- 
out detriment  to  our  democratic  ideals.  In  these  countries 
the  parents  are  allowed  to  withdraw  their  children  during 
the  recitation  in  Scripture  when  conducted  by  a  teacher  not 
of  their  own  choice.  In  this  connection  might  be  mentioned 
the  correlative  need  of  opening  exercises.  Doubtless  a  syste- 
matic course  in  Bible  teaching  would  greatly  improve  this 
too  often  worthless  exercise. 

The  English  practice  of  providing  a  course  of  study  partly 
required  and  partly  elective,  or  the  French  practice  of  having 
electives  in  certain  subjects  in  the  higher  grades,  furnishes 
opportunity  for  those  educators  who  are  interested  in  the 
development  of  the  exceptional  child,  the  genius  or  the  dull- 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  191 

ard,  to  provide  for  individuality.  The  question  of  electives 
needs  and  is  receiving  careful  consideration  in  America  at 
present.  It  would  be  profitable  for  us  to  make  a  thorough 
study  of  the  practice  of  England  and  France  before  settling 
upon  a  final  course  of  action  in  this  respect. 

The  need  of  a  sub-primary  class,  such  as  the  English  or 
French  infant  schools,  has  been  felt  to  be  a  want  in  Ameri- 
can education.  The  gap  between  the  home  and  the  school  de- 
mands this  sub-primary  class.  Besides  the  plan  suggested  by 
France  and  England,  the  American  kindergarten  offers  addi- 
tional ideas.  The  German  practice  of  requiring  and  direct- 
ing home  study  makes  a  partial  contribution  in  this  direction. 
The  good  service  rendered  by  such  a  system  of  schools,  hav- 
ing a  proper  course  of  study,  has  been  pointed  out  in  con- 
nection with  the  schools  of  France  and  England. 

The  brief  time  of  the  daily  school  sessions  in  America  has 
been  compared  with  that  of  other  countries,  with  a  view  to 
ascertaining  if  there  is  any  basis  of  fact  for  excuse  of  our 
practice.  This  comparison  brought  out  a  strong  probability 
that  the  American  child  could  and  should  spend  more  time 
in  school  than  he  does  in  some  of  the  city  schools  herein 
investigated.  This  need  of  more  recitation  time  is  suggested, 
though  not  vindicated,  by  the  poor  training  received  by  the 
average  teacher  as  contrasted  with  that  of  teachers  in  other 
countries,  and  also  by  the  absence  of  any  single  definite  aim 
toward  which  the  elementary  school  in  general,  and  the 
curriculum  in  particular,  is  directed  in  the  United  States. 
For  it  is  usually  conceded  that  a  well-trained  teacher  with 
a  clearly  conceived  aim  would  not  require  so  much  of  the 
child 's  time  in  school  as  would  a  poorly  trained  teacher  in  an 
aimless  school. 

From  time  to  time  in  this  study  occasions  have  arisen  for 
criticism  of  the  usual  American  elementary  curriculum  with 
respect  to  what  are  known  as  formal  or  abstract  studies.  The 


192  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

time  allotted  to  the  formal  as  represented  by  such  studies 
as  arithmetic,  grammar,  reading,  writing  and  language  study 
per  se,  in  many  of  our  public  elementary  school  systems  is 
doubtless  too  great.  In  other  countries  the  same  subjects 
seem  to  have  been  taught  with  more  success  by  giving  the 
formal  through  the  rich  content  subjects.  This  is  partly  due 
to  the  fact  that  too  great  a  distinction  seems  to  exist 
between  the  theoretical  and  the  practical  in  the  American 
mind.  A  feeling  prevails  that  the  purely  theoretical,  the 
symbolical  and  the  abstract  are  to  be  placed  off  on  one  side, 
as  against  the  useful,  the  constructive  and  the  aesthetic  on 
the  other.  In  our  social  life  we  have  made  distinctions  upon 
this  basis,  dividing  men  off  as  workers  and  thinkers.  The 
distinction  is  purely  hypothetical.  Men  do  not  learn  that 
way,  and  men  do  not  live  that  way.  In  human  life  we  are 
all  both  doers  and  thinkers, — the  one  because  we  are  the 
other. 

This  false  conception  probably  assists  in  accounting  for 
the  fact  that  provision  is  not  made  for  the  teaching  of  the 
formal  through  other  more  concrete  subjects,  as  in  othei 
countries.  Why  can  not  we,  too,  teach  the  formal  side  of 
language  through  emotional  literature;  formal  science  and 
mathematics  through  history,  handwork,  geography,  etc.? 
Or,  could  not  each  of  these  five  last-named  subjects  be  en- 
riched and  the  time  devoted  to  them  shortened  by  applying 
more  of  the  constructive  forms  of  school  work  to  their  solu- 
tion? Why  could  not  the  child  be  taught  to  begin  with  the 
social  activities  of  the  present  and  work  back  in  the  casual 
sequence  to  the  correlative  fields  of  history,  science,  mathe- 
matics, or  into  any  other  department  of  study  ? 

One  answer  which  this  investigation  makes  to  these  ques- 
tions is  that  the  distribution  and  time  allotments  of  the  sub- 
jects are  such  that  teaching  the  formal  through  such  rich  sub- 
jects as  history,  geography,  handwork,  nature  study,  etc.,  ia 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  193 

practically  impossible  in  America  at  present.  There  must 
be  a  rearrangement  of  time  allotments  in  the  elementary 
curriculum  before  such  is  possible.  History  and  handwork 
are  delayed  too  long,  nature  study  and  geography  lose  in 
time  assignments  too  early,  literature  is  not  sufficiently  uni- 
formly distributed  to  allow  the  practice  of  others  to  be  carried 
out  by  us.  This  deficiency  is  one  which  demands  the  serious 
consideration  of  the  American  educator. 

Correlation  of  subjects  also  is  largely  impossible  under  the 
present  arrangement  of  the  course  of  study,  since  subjects 
which  would  lend  themselves  best  to  correlation  are  not  taught, 
or  are  not  given  prominence,  during  the  same  school  year. 

3.     Time  Allotments  in  the  Curricula  of  Schools  of  the  United 
States,  England,  Germany  and  France,  Summar- 
ized into  One  Composite  Table. 

Several  problems  were  set  for  this  investigation  in  the  out- 
set, the  conclusion  and  implications  of  which  can  best  be 
shown  in  tabular  form.  The  relative  importance  attached  to 
subjects,  the  proper  balancing  of  the  various  subjects  of  in- 
struction, the  relative  time  devoted  to  each  subject,  and  the 
grade  in  which  each  is  taught,  are  among  the  matters  which 
•^e  shall  now  attempt  to  summarize  by  tables.  Besides  giving 
information  upon  these  subjects  the  tables  will  emphasize  in 
a  graphic  way  many  of  the  facts  already  discussed  in  this 
chapter. 

The  two  tables  in  question  are  summaries  of  all  the  time 
allotment  tables  heretofore  furnished.  Table  LXI.  is  a  sum- 
mary of  the  ten  American  time  allotment  tables,  II.-XL ;  of 
the  ten  English  tables,  XXVI.-XXXV.;  of  the  ten  German 
tables,  XLV.-LIV. ;  and  of  the  Paris  table,  LX.  Table  LXII. 
is  a  summary  of  the  courses  of  study  of  the  elementary  schools 
of  New  York,  London,  Berlin  and  Paris,  found  in  Tables  II., 
XXVI.,  XLV.  and  LX.,  respectively.  We  have  here  the  actual 


194  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

practice  of  the  elementary  schools  of  perhaps  the  four  most 
progressive  cities  of  the  world,  as  a  basis  of  comparison  upon 
which  to  judge  again  the  curriculum  of  our  own  country. 

While,  as  has  been  repeatedly  said,  such  a  composite  curricu- 
lum is  somewhat  hypothetical  on  account  of  the  absence  of  a 
definitely  stated  aim,  yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  these  tables 
contain  the  facts  of  the  practical  operation  of  the  elementary 
curriculum  in  the  cities  correlated.  The  suggestions  for  the 
improvement  of  the  content  and  arrangement  of  the  subject 
matter  in  the  American  curriculum  which  arise  from  these 
tables  are  worthy  of  consideration,  so  long  as  it  is  granted 
that  real  facts  are  more  useful  than  ideal  aims,  however  desir- 
able. To  know  what  people  are  doing  and  how  they  are  doing 
it,  is  worth  more  to  men  whose  business  it  is  to  bring  things 
to  pass  than  what  men  are  aiming  at  and  what  they  would  like 
to  do. 

These  two  tables  should  be  accorded  whatever  weight  is  to 
be  attached  to  the  results  of  careful  study  made  by  numerous 
experts  who  are  laboring  with  such  educational  problems  as, 
in  the  main,  are  common  to  us  all.  While  such  tables  should 
not  be  given  final  authority  until  adopted  and  tested  by 
American  educational  needs,  yet,  as  has  already  been  shown, 
the  largest  and  most  influential  principles  which  control  the 
selection  and  arrangement  of  the  American  curriculum,  oper- 
ate with  equal  force  in  the  school  systems  of  other  countries, 
the  needs  of  the  majority  of  children  who  fill  the  elementary 
schools  being  much  the  same  in  all  these  countries.  These 
common  needs  call  for  the  application  of  universal  principles, 
and  in  a  sense  add  to  the  worth  of  Tables  LXI.  and  LXIL, 
as  suggestive  summaries.  We  believe  for  these  reasons  that 
they  possess  considerable  practical  importance  to  the  American 
educator. 


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196  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  LXII. — Showing  the  Average  Number  of  Minutes  of  Recitation 
Time  per  Week  devoted  to  Each  Subject  in  Each  Grade  in  the 
Public  Elementary  Schools  of  New  York,  London,  Berlin  and 
Paris,  and  the  Average  Percentage  of  Total  Time  given  to  Each 
Subject. 


Grade                    I.         II.       III.        IV.       V.       VI.       VII.    VIII.    Pet. 

1  Opening  Exer- 
cises,   Relig- 
ion, or  Mor- 
als 

117 

118 

119 

132 

134 

132 

142 

142 

8.86 

3  Writing 

129 

158 

183 

88 

87 

80 

55 

47 

7 

0   Language1 

428 

455 

440 

4O8 

3911 

888 

300 

365 

27.8 

8  Arithmetic- 

180 

194 

224 

225 

217 

218 

221 

2OO 

14.4 

9  Geography 

35 

41 

47 

105 

65 

94 

85^ 

69 

•i.«.r 

10  History' 

38 

L'.S 

31 

00 

82 

91 

91 

65 

4.4 

14   Nature   Study1 

82 

89 

81 

88 

81 

99 

121 

145 

tJ.7 

16  Physical 
Training 

170 

156 

138 

136 

117 

118 

121 

120 

9.2 

17   Drawing6 

71 

80 

100 

101 

102 

1(17 

120 

141 

7.1 

18  Music 

65 

57 

75 

75 

72 

77 

81 

85 

5 

19  Manual     Train- 
ing  (for  Boys) 

55 

65 

65 

64 

70 

B9 

50 

45 

4.1 

20  Sewing 

<28)|     (  58)  |_<»3)  |<101)    (104)    (112) 

(149)|(17())|(7     ) 

Total 


|1376    |1450    |lfl09    | 1483    |1456    |1473    |1405    |1454 


Average  Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each  Subject 
in  Each  Grade  per  Week  in  the  Public  Elementary  Schools  of 
New  York,  London,  Berlin  and  Paris.' 


1  Opening    Exer- 
cises 

8.6 

8.2 

7.9 

9 

9.3 

. 

"10 

9.8 

'3  Writing 

d.4 

Ki.l) 

12 

6 

6 

5.5 

4 

3.3 

6  Language 

31.3 

31.4 

29.6 

27.6 

•_',.(! 

26.4 

26 

25.  2 

8  Arithmetic 

13.0 

13.4 

14.'.} 

15.2 

15 

14.8 

15.7 

13.8 

9  Geography 

2.6 

2.8 

3.1 

7.1 

»;.<> 

6.4 

6 

4.8 

10  History 

2.8 

2 

2.1 

4.1 

5.7 

6.2 

6.5 

6.6 

14  Nature    Study 

6 

6.2 

5.4 

6 

5.6 

6.8 

8.6 

10 

16  Physical 
Training 

12.4 

11 

9.2 

9.2 

8.1 

8 

s.c, 

8.3 

17  Drawing 

5.3 

6 

6.6 

6.8 

7.1 

7.3 

9 

9.7 

18  Music 

4.8 

4 

5 

5.1 

5.1 

5.3 

5.8 

5.9 

19  Manual 
Training7 

4 

4.5 

4.3 

4.3 

4.8 

4.7 

3.2 

3.1 

20  Sewing 

•>.! 

4 

6.3 

6.8 

7 

7.7 

10.6 

11.2 

'Language  includes  grammar,  literature,  composition,  dictation,  reading, 
spelling  and  memorizing  gems. 

'Paris  and  Berlin  give  geometry  in  the  three  upper  grammar  grades,  while 
New  York  and  London  give  a  small  amount  of  time  to  algebra  in  the  same 
grades.  The  time  for  these  subjects  in  each  case,  except  in  New  York,  is 
not  included  In  these  figures. 

'Civics  is  included  with  history  in  New  York  and  Paris,  but  is  not  referred 
to  in  the  London  and  Berlin  tables. 

'Nature  Study  includes  elementary  science,  object  lessons,  and  common 
things. 

*In  averaging  the  time  for  drawing,  sixty  minutes  of  the  time  assigned 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  197 

in  the  New  York  schools  under  drawing  and  constructive  work  were  allowed 
for  drawing  and  the  remainder  for  manual  training. 

•The  eighth  grade  average  in  this  table  is  partly  hypothetical.  Paris 
has  no  eighth  grade,  but  its  seventh  grade  was  repeated  in  getting  the  eighth 
grade  average. 

7The  low  percentage  for  manual  training  for  boys  is  due  to  the  absence 
of  that  subject  in  the  Berlin  tables.  The  actual  average,  therefore,  would  be 
raised  considerably  if  the  total  had  been  divided  by  three  instead  of  four. 

5.    A  Suggested  Curriculum  for  Elementary  Schools. 

In  order  to  summarize  some  of  the  facts  believed  to  be  the 
most  valuable  in  the  previous  pages,  this  discussion  is  con- 
cluded by  a  suggestive  program  of  studies.  Table  LXIII.  dis- 
plays such  an  epitome  of  the  best  that  has  been  developed  in 
this  study,  both  of  fact  and  of  theory.  It  is  an  attempt  to 
organize  all  that  has  been  heretofore  mentioned  into  an  organ- 
ically related  curriculum.  The  table  is  more  nearly  an  embodi- 
ment of  the  best  found  in  the  various  curricula  given  in  the 
first  four  chapters,  than  of  the  actual  summaries  of  these 
curricula.  It  is  not  to  be  taken  literally,  but  merely  as  a 
suggestive  scheme,  or  an  approximate  construction  of  a  course 
of  study  for  an  ordinary  city  school  in  America.  One  of  the 
principles  most  vehemently  urged  in  these  pages,  would  call 
for  the  readjustment  of  this  ideal  to  the  needs  of  individual 
localities.  Yet  it  is  sometimes  worth  while  to  have  an  ideal, 
even  if  the  actual  product  constructed  by  it  scarcely  resem- 
bles it. 

The  patience  of  the  reader  will  not  be  exhausted  by  repeti- 
tion'of  the  various  contingencies  necessary  to  a  proper  un- 
derstanding of  this  ideal  plan.  Neither  is  it  deemed  necessary 
to  explain  in  detail  why  each  time  allotment  is  made,  nor  why 
the  allotments  are  different  from  those  of  any  single  previous 
table.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  to  the  mind  of  the  writer  the 
needs  of  society  (using  the  word  in  its  broadest  sense)  within 
the  probable  environment  of  the  child  are  taken  to  be  a  safe 
criterion  of  measurement  of  the  place  of  any  subject  in  the 
elementary  public  school  curriculum.  The  following  expla- 
nations, however,  of  the  point  of  view  taken  with  reference  to 


198  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 


TABLE  LXIII. — Showing  the  Number  of  Minutes  per  Week  and  the 
Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  for  Each  Study  in  Each  Grade 
suggested  as  a  Basis  of  a  Proposed  Time  Table. 


Grade. 


II.       III. 


IV. 


V.        VI.        VII.    VIII.    Pet 


1  Scripture,  Open- 
ing Exercises 

120 

130 

IHi       145 

150 

150 

150 

150 

10 

2  Reading 

240 

I'tiu 

210J      145 

60 

60 

60 

3  Writing                |        60 

15 

112|      116 

4  Spelling 

48 

52 

56|        87|        60| 

5  Grammar 

1 

45  1        60 

60 

27.5 

6  Literature 

72 

901     12° 

120 

195  1 

7  Oral  &  Written 
Composition 

72 

78 

112 

87 

90|        75 

60 

2 

8  Arithmetic 


120|      130|      140|      145|      225|      225|      225|      150|      12.5 


9  Geography 

124 

52|        70|      lltij      150|      150 

150|      150 

7.5 

10  History   & 
Civics 

60 

65 

70 

72 

150|      150 

150 

180 

7.5 

14   Nature    Study 

120|      130 

140|      101|        75|        75 

75 

75 

7.5 

16  Physical 
Training1 

60 

cr> 

70 

72 

150|      150T     150 

150 

7» 

17   Drawing 

•IS 

52|        70|        72 

75|        75|        75 

75|        5  ' 

18  Music 

108 

91|        70|        72 

75|        75|        75 

75|        5 

19  Hand-work 

120J      130|      140|      145|      150|      150|      150|      195|      10 

Total 


1200|  1300|  1400|  1450|  1500|  1500|  1500J  1500| 


Average  Percentage  of  Recitation  Time  devoted  to  Each   Subject 
in  Each  Grade. 


1   Scripture,  etc. 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

'?  Reading 

20 

'20 

15 

10 

4 

4 

4 

:*  Writing 

5 

5 

8 

8 

4  Spelling 

4 

4 

4 

6 

4 

5  Grammar 

3 

4 

4 

6  Literature 

5 

6 

8 

8 

13 

7  Composition 

6 

« 

8 

6 

6 

5 

4 

3 

8  Arithmetic 

10 

10 

10 

10 

15 

15 

15 

10 

9  Geography 

2 

4 

5 

8 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10  History,    etc. 

5 

5 

5 

5 

10 

10 

10 

12 

14  Nature    Study 

10 

10 

10 

7 

5 

5 

5 

5 

16  Physical 
Training 

5 

5 

5 

5 

10 

10 

10 

10 

17   Drawing 

4 

4 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

18  Music 

9 

7 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

19  Hand-work 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

13 

'Includes  hygiene. 

the  content  and  distribution  of  certain  subjects  of  instruction 
are  necessary  for  a  clear  understanding  of  the  various  time 
allotments  in  Table  LXIII. 

(1)    Reading  should  be  taught  by  the  use  of  literary  readers 
in  the  second,  third  and  fourth  grades,  and  if  taught  in  the 


PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA.  199 

grammar  grades,  geographical  and  historical  readers  might  be 
used  with  profit. 

(2)  Writing  should  cease  per  se  by  the  completion  of  the 
fourth  grade. 

(3)  Spelling  is  always  to  be  taken  from  the  oral,  written 
and  printed  work,  and  should  not  receive  a  special  assignment 
after  Grade  V.,  but  should  be  taught  in  connection  with  other 
subjects. 

(4)  Grammar  should  be  inductively  developed  from  the 
beginning  of  the  third  grade.    A  text  might  be  introduced  at 
the  beginning  of  the  sixth  grade. 

(5)  Literature  should  be  taught  in  connection  with  reading 
through  the  fourth  grade.     It  should  be  a  separate  subject 
from  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  grade. 

(6)  Composition  work  should  begin  as  early  as  possible  and 
increase  with  each  advancing  grade  in  time  allotment. 

(7)  Arithmetic  should  deal  with  the  quantitative  aspect  of 
social  activities  as  early  as  the  child  can  do  concrete  work, 
i.  e.,  from  the  first. 

(8)  Home  geography  should  be  studied  in  connection  with 
nature  study,  school  excursions,  school  gardens,  weather  ob- 
servations, etc.,  in  the  first  and  second  grades.    A  text  on  home 
geography  should  be  given  during  the  third  year.    The  regular 
elementary  and  advanced  courses  in  geography  should  then 
be  taken. 

(9)  In  history,  historical  and  biographical  stories  should 
be  given  in  Grades  I.  and  II.    Local  history  should  be  used  in 
the  third  grade,  and  in  the  upper  grades  the  usual  historical 
works. 

(10)  Civics  is  a  development  connected  with  history  and 
should  increase  in  importance  in  the  upper  grades. 

(11)  Physical   culture   does  not  include  recess  periods, 
which  should  be  several  in  number.    Organized  games  are  pre- 
supposed in  these  recess  periods. 


200  PUBLIC  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  CURRICULA. 

(12)  Handwork  for  boys  and  that  for  girls  need  not  con- 
tain the  same  subject  matter,  and  their  recitation  periods  in 
this  subject  need  not  occur  at  the  same  time. 


150] 


'  rt  rfafi" 


u  io 

150 

l.,u 

7.5 

r50 

150 

180 

7.5 

1-|5 

75 

75  1        7.5 

isoj    150 

150 

7» 

rs 

75 

75|        5  ' 

'rri 

75 

75 

5 

.;,„ 

150       195 

"'•'    150()|    1500] 

Each  Subject 


JO 


beginning  of  t>>~  *"' 
the  beginning  ol  i 

(5)  Literatiy     •'. 
through  the  four* 
from  the  beginr 

(6)  Composition 
increase  with  each 

(7)  Arithirv' 
social  activiti*",  ;• 
i.  e.,  from  the  *••  ~<  -1 


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